


The Alternative

by EstherAle24_7



Category: Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Romance, F/M, Family Feels, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-07
Updated: 2019-07-23
Packaged: 2019-09-13 17:20:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 30,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16896786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EstherAle24_7/pseuds/EstherAle24_7
Summary: "One look, one look was all it took for her to regret a decision she made five years ago despite all the good that had come from it." Zatanna has been M.I.A for 5 years & Dick finally has the life he deserves; but when their shared history comes to light, they learn that the choices they've made and the alternative choices that follow create something better than history, a future.





	1. Chapter 1

Bruce walked into the daycare facility across the street from his corporate building located in Paris, France. He was in town for a meeting but something, call it instinct, his gut, or whatever, was pulling him to this daycare.

He'd seen a little boy in the window as he drove up to the building yesterday. He'd nearly totaled his car at the sight of him; a carbon copy of the first robin, Dick Grayson. His storm blue eyes shone furiously and his inky black hair framed his round face almost angelically. Just as he stopped the car to get a closer look the little boy hopped down from wherever he must've stood and scurried away.

That was yesterday and he could've brushed it aside, he knew as well as anyone Dick was in Bludhaven and was anything but the toddler he'd seen yesterday. He was a grown man, moving up in the world, making his own decisions and checking in occasionally.

He would've forgotten about the little boy, if the sight of him didn't haunt him in his sleep and with every waking step since he'd since him. He would've gotten on his jet back to Gotham, headed home and never thought of it again if he were any other person but he was Bruce Wayne, the Batman, and he was someone who trusted his hunches.

He walked up to the receptionist and a small smile pulled at her lips.

"Bonjour," she greeted him warmly.

"Bonjour," he replied, "Parles-tu anglais?" he asked.

"Yes, can I help you?" she asked.

"Please," he replied, "I'm moving here from America on business and I'm interested in sending my son to this school. I was wondering if I could get a tour of the place."

She nodded slowly, "I'm sorry, we don't give tours on weekdays. Perhaps you can return another time."

Bruce smiled politely, "Well that's unfortunate, I'm working within a very small window of time. Isn't there anything you could do for me?"

The woman smiled sympathetically, "I'm sorry but we don't give tour while the children are here. It's a safety precaution for the children. I am sure you can understand." She replied. "The earliest I could get you on a tour is this weekend and even then our daycare is heavily sought after, so there is a great chance you'd end up on our waitlist."

"That's a shame, I'm too sure my son would love it here and it's so close to my office and you said the daycare is open on the weekend?" he probed.

"On Saturdays yes, but most of the children from the surrounding neighborhoods come for free events and that is when we do our tours. Should I pencil you in for this Saturday Mister…?" she asked

"Mr. Wayne," he finished for her, "Bruce Wayne."

Her eyes flew open, "Bruce Wayne?" she said her French accent only accentuating her surprise. "Bruce Wayne of Wayne Inc.?"

"Yes," he said charmingly. "You've heard of me?" he asked with feigned innocence.

"Wait one minute," she said getting up from her desk and running into the office behind her. When she returned another woman stood by her side and stuck out her hand.

"Mr. Wayne," she said, "It is an honor to meet you. Your company donates to our facility every year and it would be an honor to have any child of yours attend our daycare."

Bruce shook her outstretched hand and smiled, "Thank you, as I told Ms.-"

"Renee" the receptionist finished for him. "My name is Renee."

Bruce nodded, "As I told Ms. Renee here, I am interested in sending my son, Damian here." He smirked a little at the thought of Damian attending a preschool. "Of course I would want a tour of the building and would like to talk to some available staff if possible."

"Of course," the woman agreed, "My name is Trisha, I am the headmaster here. Please follow me." She said.

"Thank you," Bruce said.

They toured the entirety of the building and Bruce still hadn't seen the little boy from the window. He turned to Trisha who was still talking about the design of the facility to ask a question.

"Is there an outside space for the children?" he asked.

Trisha smiled, "Yes, there is, in fact our level fours are there right now." She beamed.

"Level fours?" he asked.

"Yes, our four years olds and up, most of them will be going to kindergarten next year." Trisha informed him.

Bruce nodded, the boy he saw was small but easily could've been four. He could've simply been small for his age, after all Dick had been small for his age up until high school. This was also the last of the children in the building, so unless the little boy somehow managed to leave unnoticed by him or simply didn't exist, he had to be with the level fours.

He followed Trisha into the elevator and down the hallway that lead him to the outside pay area for the children. About thirty kids ran about and he scanned the area for the raven-haired boy, just as he was about to leave the little boy popped out from behind the playhouse with a dark-haired girl in tow. The little boy froze when he saw Bruce and the little girl stopped beside him, they started whispering to each other and Bruce wondered if the little boy had seen him too.

The teacher blew her whistle and the kids ran to line up before her. In spite of the sounding whistle the little girl ran right up to him and chills (admittedly) ran from the crown of his head to the tips of his toes as she looked up at him.

She had the brightest blue eyes he'd ever seen. No, he thought suddenly, I've seen eyes like these before.

He didn't want to believe it but there he was looking at a miniature replica of Dick and of the girl who'd stolen his heart so many years ago with her wavy black hair and bright blue eyes. Could this really be a coincidence?

Bruce looked at Trisha, testing to see if interaction was okay, she smiled at him excitedly.

Bruce squatted down to their level, "Hello," he sticking his hand out.

"Hi," they said simultaneously, though the girl said it boldly and the boy muttered it shyly.

"My name is Bruce, Bruce Wayne." He told them. "What's your name?" he asked the little boy.

"John." The little boy mumbled shyly.

He turned to the little girl then, "And how about you, what's your name?"

"Wyette, Wyette Sindella-Grace" the little girl beamed. "I'm four." She said holding up four fingers.

"Me too," Bruce said.

They laughed and the little boy shook his head, his inky black hair falling into his face. "You're not four," he laughed, "You're too big to be four."

"You're silly." The little girl said.

The teacher blew her whistle again and the boy pulled the little girl towards the line.

"Bye," she shouted as she let the boy lead her to the back of the line.

Bruce waved and then turned to face Trisha. "Are they twins?" he asked her.

"Why yes they are, fraternal twins to be exact, they're two of our brightest students here. They're a great example as to why you should send your son here." She continued.

"Why is that?" Bruce asked as they started making their way back into the school building.

"Because Wyette's very outgoing and John is extremely shy, yet they both flourish here like you wouldn't believe. Your son whether he's shy, outgoing, or in between would do the same here; flourish."

As they reached the door, Bruce turned to face her, "Thank you, I think I've seen it all."

Trisha laughed, "It was nothing but my pleasure Mr. Wayne." She assured him.

"Trisha," he called just as they were about to go their separate ways, "I almost forgot, I work odd hours most nights…..when is pick up time for the parents?" he asked.

"I understand your concern Mr. Wayne, we have a strict pick up time at 2pm. We strongly believe time at home is just as important, if not more, than time at school."

"I couldn't agree more," he smiled as he walked out of the building and glanced at his watch.

He watched from his car as a shapely blonde came to pick up the two children he so subtly caught hair from earlier. He was having Alfred run the tests now, not that Alfred knew who they belonged to or who he was matching them too, but when Bruce assured him that if he didn't find a match from League DNA he could drop it, he seemed all too eager…..well as eager as Alfred ever is.

He also hacked the daycare system and looked up their address, lo and behold it was a P.O. box addressed to a carefully crafted alias.

He noted that she had walked into the daycare, she didn't come in a fancy car like most of the other parents had. This observation only drew his attention more, it was clear from the clothes she wore and the clothes the children had on, she was a woman of reasonable wealth. She could simply be a woman who was down to earth in spite of those things but what it meant to him, was that she lived nearby. Her physique said she was in shape, in peak shape, more so than the usual mother of two and that could have negated his theory but how far could two four year olds go without tuckering out. No more than a mile or two, three at the very best. So he got out of his car and followed from a healthy distance.

His phone rang and he brought it to his ear, "Alfred," he greeted him.

"Sir, it would seem your hunch was correct. The DNA is a match for two Leaguers. Does this mean-"

"I've got to go." Bruce said ending the call.

She stopped at the cross walk and he walked up to her, taking off his sunglasses and placing his hand on the small of her back.

"It's been a long time." He said when she looked up at him in offense and then shock.

"Do I know you?" she asked pointedly.

He bent down and lifted his hand to Wyette, who smiled at him and gave him a high five. She blanched at the sight, "I think it's time you've stopped hiding." He said broodingly.

"I think you've got me mistaken for someone else." She told him confidently.

"I've got DNA evidence that says otherwise," he told her. "You know I'm not bluffing."

The light for the crosswalk turned on and yet she didn't move or reply. She looked up at him with piercing eyes that spoke volumes about the waves of emotion coursing through her, Bruce dropped her gaze. 

"Let's talk." He said.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! I hope you are enjoying reading this as much as I enjoy writing it. Please feel more than free to share your thoughts and comments below! Enjoy!

She rushed out of portal and into the watchtower foyer, he spun around to face her.

"Batma-" the unfinished word left his mouth agape and only shallow breath took its place as he took her in, alive and well.

One look, one look was all it took for her to regret a decision she made five years ago despite all the good that had come from it. His catious storm blue eyes tore at her heart as he brought his hands, gently, to her face and shook his head in disbelief.

"Dick," she started desperately. "I'm so sorry."

He was frozen in place, "Zatanna?" he mused as if he couldn't believe she were in front of him.

She only had about thirty seconds left, she heard a chorus of gasps from behind her, but didn't pay them any mind. She had to warn him, she couldn't lose her focus now.

"Dick, I need to tell you-" she said grabbing his hands in hers. She noted then that he wasn't wearing his costume, her naked hands were holding his, and they felt different from the hands she remembered. Her touch seemed to shock him out of his trance like stance, his grip on her hands tightened, so much so, it was painful.

"Zatanna," he said again, "How….where have you….you're alive?" he asked confusion and pain ripping into his deep voice.

The unshielded emotion in his voice brought her to her knees as tears fell from her eyes incessantly. "Dick," she said trying to focus his attention but it was already too late. "Sorry."

_***Override recognized Batman A-02*** _

_***Override recognized Batman A-02*** _

_***Recognized Batman A-02*** _

The computer announced their presence and she whipped around to face them.

"Mommy!" Wyette shouted as she and John burst through the zeta tube and ran into her arms with Batman only a few feet behind them.

Harsh lights flooded the watchtowers, balloons fell from the ceiling and a banner reading 'Happy Birthday Batman' hung from above them.

Dick stumbled back as the twins secured themselves in her embrace. Wyette's long black hair shielded her face but her heart sprinted into double time as John looked up and held Dick's gaze almost knowingly. The chorus of gasps erupted and she turned to face her audience for a split second.

Her eyes quickly swept the room and took in the faces of her former super powered colleagues, who now just blatantly stared at the scene she was in the center of. She knew what they would see, what anyone with eyes could see; her children…his children.

John was the carbon copy of his father and even if every cell in her body wanted to deny it, anyone could piece together what had happened now. Dick's face was a ghostly white (she would know) as he looked at the little boy and then the little girl who was cowering in her mother's arms. He saved Zatanna for last, looking at her with nothing but horror on his face.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered as she clutched the twins to her in a last ditch attempt at protecting them from this moment.

_***Recognized Flash A-03*** _

The speedster ran into the room at record speed, "Surprise batsy!" he shouted, not having yet taken in the scene.

"What did I miss it?" he asked. He looked around then and his eyes finally landed on Zatanna. Even from behind the cowl a look of shock and then confusion slipped across his face. "What'd I miss?" he asked before someone shoved him into silence.

Batman walked over to where Zatanna was on the floor with the twins and placed a hand on Dick's back, then stretched an arm out to her. "We should go somewhere more private to talk about this."

Zatanna looked at him in horror, and then at the twins, before M'gann flew over to her and placed her hand on hers. The Martian looked different now, her hair was shorter, her hands rougher as if she'd been in the gym or on more missions, but the kindness in her eyes looked the same. The kindness and loyalty that let her know that their bond had never been broken, despite the years that had passed them by, that she'd die before she let anything happen to her kids, and another wave of guilt crashed over her as she realized she how she'd wronged more than just Dick by delaying this meeting.

Fresh tears threatened to overtake her but she fought them off and faced the twins who looked ready to cry themselves. She forced a smile on her face, "Wyette, John, this is mommy's very good friend; Megan. You guys are gonna stay with her for just a little bit while mommy takes care of….of some things okay?"

Wyette looked up at her mother and used her tiny hands to wipe the tears off Zatanna's face. "Are you okay mommy?" she asked.

John's face was chuck full of concern as well, their faces far too serious for the ripe age of four. She laughed in spite of her tears, "Yeah baby," she promised before kissing them on their temples and taking Batman's hand. "Be good for Megan."

The twins turned to face M'gann who smiled at them warmly and began showing them tricks.

She followed Batman out of the foyer (to her right) with a shell-shocked Dick on her far right. Suddenly Batman stopped cleared his throat and turned around, "Uhhh thanks for the party," he muttered to the stunned audience.

They got into the conference room and the door hadn't even closed behind them before Dick walked up to her and looked her straight into her cyan blue, tear filled eyes. His own storm blue eyes were filled with budding tears and the utter devastation was raw in his eyes.

He gasped at the air before he said anything looking at her with panic and disbelief before finally ripping another breath from the room and speaking.

"Who are they?" the words struggled to get out of his mouth but he set his jaw and forced them out anyway.

She didn't answer.

"Are they mine?" he asked his voice strangled.

She tried everything she could to open her mouth, to justify her coming answer, to lie even, to say anything but couldn't. She nodded in response and could feel the weight of the world fall off her shoulders.

"Yes," she whispered, when he still didn't respond; as he was still staring at her.

When they both didn't say anything else Batman interceded, "How and when?" he asked pointedly.

Zatanna's eyes fell to the floor, unable to look at either of them anymore. "Five years ago, right before Dick went off world to help Huntress save her world. A few weeks before we met up and a few days after you left, I found out that I was pregnant. I wanted to tell you when you got back-" she said.

"But you didn't," Dick interrupted, "You disappeared, no one knew where or how to find you and believe me, I looked. I looked everywhere for you, we (he said first pointing to himself and Bruce), the league, looked everywhere for you." He said angrily. "We thought you were dead."

"I know but you were gone for a year Dick," she explained.

"You've been gone for five and with kids; two!" he shouted.

"I wanted to tell you," she promised, "I swear I was going to tell you but in that time you were gone and I was doing everything myself and then I found out I wasn't having one but two kids. Twins! I panicked, I thought that there was a chance I would never see you again."

He scoffed but she continued anyway.

"There was always going to be a chance that I would never see you again, as long as you were a hero. There would always be something looming over us as long as we played these roles and I couldn't take that risk with them. Risk one of us not coming home, or risk putting their lives in danger, I just couldn't take that risk. So I didn't stick around to find out whether or not you returned or if you'd leave with me, I disappeared. I left everything and everyone behind, so that I could give them a chance at a normal, happy, and safe life."

"So you didn't even give me the option of being in their lives?! You didn't even give me a choice? How could you do this to me?" Dick asked, heartbreak in every word. "How could you when you know how much family means to me, when you knew how much _**you**_ meant to me? How could you justify it for five years?! Five!" he exclaimed, tears now running down his face.

"It wasn't about us. It never was, it's always been about them." she cried.

"So I was already so useless in my role as a father that you decided they could live without me?" he asked.

Zatanna didn't answer only looking at him in a numb state. She couldn't even believe she was here, let alone in front of him and confessing to what had to be the worst crime she'd ever committed against him.

Batman took off his mask and brought his fingers to his temple. "How did you disappear Zatanna, we searched the globe, we even went off world, you couldn't have been in Paris this whole time."

She still stood there staring at Dick, who stared right back at her with the same expression of horror and disbelief. He looked like he was going to be sick, as if at any moment he would hurl.

"Zatanna." Batman snapped bringing her out of her retrieve.

"Shadowcrest isn't bound by time or space, I kept a close eye on your search and moved the house accordingly. I was never in the continental U.S. though, I didn't want to chance the risk of running into someone from the League or someone from my past. Three years passed and it seemed like you guys had stopped looking so I settled down in Paris, the twins aren't American citizens, so it's not like their names in the French school system would send off any alarms and I didn't want to confuse them, so I laid low. Wayne Tech had just brought the building down town, across from their daycare, and the minute I found out I prepared to move them. I didn't want to just pull them from the daycare, without the proper papers, child services would've started to look too closely. I had just wrapped everything up when Bruce saw John that day." She laughed bitterly. "Of course the one week you're in Paris you run into my kids."

"Our kids." Dick reminded her in hard voice, "How long were you going to stay on the run? When were you ever going to tell me about them?

"I don't know." She whispered earnestly.

"How could you not know? They're my kids too Zatanna!"

Zatanna shook her head, "No Dick, they're _my_ kids. You might be a father, but that doesn't make you a parent. I was turned into a parent the second it happened, you wouldn't have been a parent for nine months after that. So how could you know what justice for them was? I would do anything for them, right, wrong, good, evil and worse just because their breathing alone would have justified it. You weren't there so I made the decision and I left."

His face was marred with an anger she'd never seen in him before and if it weren't for the fact that she were fighting about her kids, she might've been scared of what he'd do next.

"You didn't have the right to take that choice from me." He said his voice tight and strained. "And now they're in there and they don't even know who I am. I don't even know who they are and you expect me to just be okay with it?"

"No," she said.

"Oh so you expect me to pretend they don't exist?" he guessed.

"I don't expect anything from you. I don't expect you to change your life for them, I don't expect you to be a part of their lives, I don't even expect you to forgive me. I'm just here because you deserve to know about them and more importantly one day when they're old enough to ask about you, they'll deserve to know too. I don't want them to pay for my mistakes." She said.

"It's a little late for that, don't you think?" he asked acidically.


	3. Chapter 3

Black Canary let out the breath she had been holding and smiled wearily. "It's been so long since I've done this for either of you, it's like Deja vu" she chuckled, "nostalgia is a hell of a drug." she said.

Neither of them laughed and Black Canary sighed, they stood at opposite ends of the room and while Dick glared at the side of her face Zatanna closed her eyes and subtly entered M'gann psychic link. She felt M'gann smile in her mind, she knew Zatanna had entered her mind and was not offended, instead she turned her gaze to Wyette and John. The twins sat amongst a gaggle of her former friends and colleagues being entertained by their super powered tricks and last second arrangements.

The twins beamed in excitement and had smiles so wide it looked like their faces could split. No part of her was surprised that twins would be delighted instead of terrified of being surrounded by super powered people. It took forever and a day to explain to them why they couldn't use their magic in public and they still just barely grasped the concept. Now, they were surrounded by people who used their powers as a game and they were probably ecstatic to find out they weren't alone in this world of wonders.

_**Well if they'd ever felt alone, they'll certainly never feel that way again. They're so cute and sweet, everyone loves them.**_  M'gann thought gleefully.

Again, a tidal wave of regret washed over her as she realized how many people she had robbed in her hasty actions.

_**M'gann**_ **,**  Zatanna started to think.

_**It's okay, you did what you thought was right. No one can fault you for that.**_  M'gann thought before Zatanna could finish her thought.

Zatanna's chagrined thoughts turned towards Dick.

_**Oh,**_  M'gann thought more stiffly,  _ **well...not everyone can fault you**_ **.** She amended mentally.  _ **Good luck.**_

Zatanna sighed and opened her eyes, retreating from M'gann's psychic link and re-focusing on the room around her.

"I know you two have a lot of catching up and sorting out to do. It's been five years, it might take longer than that to heal what's been broken but it has to start here, today." Dinah started in what Zatanna guessed was her patient psychologist voice (the term the team used after they'd all been forced to go to personal counseling with her years back after their failsafe mission).

She looked at Zatanna before continuing. "I'm not a mother, so I won't pretend to understand the choices you've had to make over the last few years. I can only imagine the difficulty, the loneliness, and the discipline it must've required to achieve such a feat so successfully."

She turned to Dick then, "And I certainly can't begin to understand what it must feel like having been robbed of such an opportunity, of family, of a life that could have been.. but it's not my place to. You alone carry that burden and I am truly sorry for your loss. But we're here now because we're trying to remedy the situation at least for the kids. For..."

"Wyette and John," Zatanna whispered before clearing her throat. "Their names are Wyette and John, Wyette Sindella-Grace Grayson and John Wallace Grayson, after my mother and Dick's father." she mumbled.

Dick looked at her, his glare softening by a millimeter.

Dinah smiled, "That's beautiful." she breathed turning to look at Dick encouragingly. "We are here now for Wyette and John, who deserve to have both parents in their lives. So let's talk it out, with their benefit in mind."

The evening progressed slowly in the oversized conference room but their negotiations were coming to an end.

"I don't mind being introduced as a friend first," Dick conceded after Zatanna argued that they'd be confused if their dad just popped out of nowhere. It had to be a gradual adjustment for them, they were just kids after all.

"But if that transition is going to happen smoothly, I have to be allowed around them and I can't do that if I'm in Bludhaven and they're in Paris." he argued.

Zatanna looked at him skeptically, "There are zeta tubes you can use and if worse ever comes to worst I can just teleport over to you. Visitation wouldn't be a problem."

Dick shook his head, "You could've teleported to me any time in the past five years and you didn't, so pardon me for being skeptical of your willingness to do so."

Zatanna pressed her teeth into her bottom lip knowing she couldn't argue, at least not fairly.

"I don't want visitation." he continued "I want to see them every day, I want to take them to and from school, I want full integration into their lives and that's not going to happen with us on different continents."

"You want me to move." she guessed in a deadpan voice.

He almost smirked at her and she narrowed her eyes. "Yes." he said curtly.

She pressed her lips together and he looked at her with feigned innocence.

"You were already getting ready to leave Paris when Bruce found you anyway and Shadowcrest manor can essentially be placed anywhere. What's the big deal? We could be next door neighbors as long as I get to be with them every day." he said.

"The big deal," Zatanna started explaining slowly. "is that Bludhaven isn't exactly the kid rearing environment any sane parent has in mind. I am also not keen on bringing my kids to a place where there's a target on your back and an abundance of your personal enemies."

"Fine, move to Gotham then. I can work anywhere as a cop, you could still do your shows if you still do that, and they would be around the clock protection from the bats. They could go to Gotham academy, get to know everyone, they would have a life and a family. I could have their rooms set up in my place in less than a month and -"

"Wait, what rooms, what are you saying?" Zatanna said cutting him off. "They're not living with you, Dick. They don't even know you."

"Whose fault is that?" he countered.

"You don't know the first thing about them, you don't know what they eat, what they do, you don't know how to be a parent."

"Then like every parent had to at some point, I'll learn." he said. "Look, I'm not saying this has to happen tomorrow but once we get to know each other, then we can split the time between us."

"This isn't some martial arts move that you practice until you get it a week later Dick. These are children, my children-" she started saying through her teeth.

"Our children," he corrected her in a hard voice. "The children you neglected to tell me about for five years, so this might seem a little hasty to you but I've already missed out on more than I'm willing to concede."

"And I get that," she said

"Do you?" he asked. "Because you've known them their whole lives. I deserve the chance to get to know them too and if for at most eight months, they spent time with me every day, I'm certain-"

"But how could you be?" Zatanna said cutting him off again. "How could you be certain of anything for them?"

"They're my kids Zatanna, there's a part of me in them-" he started to argue.

"They have powers, Dick!" she exclaimed, tears pricking her eyes, jumping from her seat, "they're not normal, they're homo magi's just like me, what would you do when they started manifesting more abilities that they can't control? What happens when they start levitating at Bruce's and you can't reach them with a step ladder? What then?"

"Then I would shoot a grappling hook to one of the chandelier supports and climb it, or put a hole through the ceiling and grab them from the floor above. I could figure it out Zatanna." He promised.

"I will figure it out." he said in a hard voice."You've had five years to figure it out, so give me some time. I am not saying I am going to become you over night, but I need to start somewhere and you can't stop me. Not anymore and never again."

"But a lot can happen between now and then, we don't know when the twins will start to adjust or when they will feel comfortable enough to sleep over so let's not worry so much about future plans, right now." Dinah prompted.

"Our goal is to take it a day at a time, then a week at a time, and eventually a month at a time. In three months, we can talk about progress and later goals, and until then we can meet weekly." She suggested.

Dick and Zatanna looked at her with slightly puzzled expressions, before she continued.

"Yes, every week or at the very least every other week, the three of us should meet. Your relationship with one another will heavily impact them and if there's any hope of this working for **their**  benefit, you're both going to have to work to get over what's happened in these last five years."

Dick threw her a look of mixed emotion before tightening his fists and flexing his jaw. "Trust me," he said in a tight voice, "I'm over her."

Zatanna's eyes didn't leave his as she remained determined not to let his words or harsh stares effect her.

"We should go, I'm ready to meet them now." he said before walking through the door.

Dinah saw the look on Zatanna's face and placed a soft hand on her shoulder, "For now, let's focus on them getting to meet Dick for the first time. This is a big moment for them and we don't want past issues or personal bias to taint it."

Zatanna nodded in agreement and Dinah smiled in response before pulling her into a hug.

"Hey," she said in her regular voice, "I'm glad you're back. We missed you."

Zatanna smiled wearily and didn't respond afraid that the lump in her throat would turn to tears. Instead she cast her eyes towards the door where Dick had just left.

Dinah squeezed her hands gently, "Some more than others, just give it time." she assured her in a hard voice. "It's going to take some getting used to, but trust me things are going to be great, even better with the twins here."

Zatanna nodded and tried to blink back her tears, "Dinah, I'm so sorry." she whispered.

Dinah shook her head, blinking back tears of her own. "Ugh, don't get me started on the waterworks. It's okay, you're here now and that's what matters."

Dinah smiled at her again, like she was looking at the prodigal son.

"I can't believe you're a mom, Giovanni would be so proud." she squeaked.

Zatanna's voice caught in her throat as the words hit her like a breath of air, she never knew she needed to take.

"Will you introduce me to them?" Dinah asked, wrapping her arm around her and walking out of the room with her.

"Of course." Zatanna said.


	4. Chapter 4

Zatanna walked anxiously to another conference room where she knew Tim and Megan had brought the twins. Dick stood at the door and watched them through the glass panel. Despite his earlier vehemence he stood rigidly, and his jaw remained tight and locked (a result of his anger no doubt) while he fidgeted in place. A trait even Zatanna knew was uncommon for him in the face of a challenge.

Zatanna opened her mouth to encourage him and quickly remembered that she was not his favorite person by a long shot and so she closed her mouth just as quickly. And she hated to admit it but she was just as nervous, if not more nervous than he was. Despite what was the most obvious fact that she had hidden from her kids, she made it a point in her child rearing to be upfront and honest with her children, any lie she had ever told them was a lie of omission. They were four, they were just now getting curious, so whenever they asked about their father Zatanna told them that he was a hero. When they asked why they didn't know him she honestly told them because he lived very far away from them.

As she reached the door, Dick pulled it open allowing her to enter the room first.

"Thanks," she mumbled.

M'gann caught her eye first and smiled at her blindingly. She flew over to where Zatanna stood and wrapped her in a hug, "Welcome back," she whispered in her ear, "We've really missed you."

Zatanna gave her a squeeze back as she choked back her tears. M'gann pecked her on the cheek softly before walking behind her and squeezing Dick's shoulder as a kind gesture and leaving the room.

Tim, the current Robin, stood in front of the twins now and did a simple somersault. Wyette's bright blue eyes blew up in excitement as she stood on her chair and replicated the stunt to near perfection, her landing slightly off. She nearly slipped off the chair and just as Zatanna went to catch her with a spell, Tim grabbed her from behind and steadied her. Zatanna caught her breath and Tim winked at her.

"That was great!" he exclaimed, turning his attention back to Wyette. He looked up where the pair stood at the entrance and smiled kindly. "Looks like our time is up guys. Your mom's here."

Zatanna took a steady breath before speaking, "Wye, John come here a minute."

The twins ran over to her animatedly; tell her all they could about their new friends. She smiled meekly at their excitement.

"I know, I know," she said conspiratorially, "you guys made great friends today and you'll see them again soon, I promise but right now I want you to meet somebody special."

John's eyes lit up with almost reverent like wonder, "Are we gonna meet Superman, mommy?" he asked in a cautiously excited voice.

Tim chuckled as Bruce rolled his eyes behind the cowl and guided him out.

"No, maybe next time." Zatanna said.

She turned their attention to Dick, who smiled down gently at them. "This is mommy's special friend, his name is Richard but you guys can call him Dick. He's gonna be hanging out with us for a while."

Wyette pursed her pink lips and her small brows furrowed, she stood on the tips of her toes and leaned into her mother's ear, cover her mouth with her cupped hands. "Does he need your special help, mommy?" she asked her mom.

"No," Zatanna answered, "but he's one of mommy's very good friends, like Megan, and he's gonna help us out with a bunch of stuff, but right now what he really wants to do is meet you guys. Is that okay?"

A smile broke out onto Wyette's face as she nodded shyly and turned to Dick, John nodded more apprehensively.

Dick squatted down to their level, stuck out his hand, and smiled, "Hi, my name's Dick. What's your name?"

"Wyette," the little girl beamed shaking his hand and twirling in her place, "Wyette Sindella-Grace Grayson." She said her name as if it took the full extent of all of her concentration; as if she were putting a puzzle together and she looked at Zatanna with a smile on her face. Zatanna winked at her and Wyette beamed; clearly proud of her accomplishment.

Dick looked at Zatanna sharply, obviously shocked that the little girl knew her identity. Zatanna smiled wearily and tilted her head in John's direction.

He turned to John who took an apprehensive step back. "And you must be John," Dick said.

John nodded once and said nothing else in return.

"Why don't you tell Dick your whole name John? And shake his hand." Zatanna encouraged.

John's flushed round face paled and contorted into an expression of misapprehension and discomfort. He shook his head and turned to Zatanna mutely, tucking himself into her embrace.

"John? Honey, you can go ahead. He's a good guy." Zatanna coaxed. "Look baby, Wyette's his friend."

John shook his head mutely and Zatanna looked up at Dick in apology.

Dick cleared his throat "Well it's nice to meet you John. I hope you guys don't mind if I join in on the fun." He continued smoothly. "I saw you guys doing flips with Tim and I wanted to come play too."

"You can flip?" Wyette asked her bubbly voice going up an octave in surprise.

"Yep and I can do this," Dick said cartwheeling into a handstand. It was his signature move with younger kids, that and cartwheels. He usually kept it simple not wanting them to try anything dangerous at home.

"I can do this!" Wyette offered as she sank gracefully into a split.

"Me too," Dick smiled as he came down from his hand stand into a split beside her.

Wyette threw her head back and let a peel of laughter roll through her.

Dick chuckled her bouncing laugh contagious, "Yep, that one makes all the girls laugh." he joked.

"You're flexible like me and mommy!" Wyette laughed again.

Dick smiled, "Well how about John is he flexible?" Dick asked Wyette, though he looked at John, who watched them cautiously.

Wyette nodded furiously. "Yeah! John's really good!" She looked at her brother and waved him over. John looked at her, wide eyes looming with timidity.

"Is he?" Dick mused curiously. "Because I'm the best."

"No," Wyette laughed in blatant disapproval. "You're not the best."

"So John's the best?" He asked with feigned disbelief.

John chuckled from inside of Zatanna's arms and shook his head.

"No?" Dick asked engagingly.

"So you're the best?" he asked Wyette.

Wyette rolled her cyan blue eyes in exasperation, shook her head, and laughed. "No!"

John laughed again, louder this time.

"Then who's the best?" Dick asked exasperatedly.

"Mommy's the best!" Wyette and John exclaimed in unison before bursting into another fit of laugher. John brought both his hands to his face, as if tired of being patient with Dick's feigned ignorance.

"Oh!" Dick exclaimed.

Dinah, who stood behind Zatanna now, placed a warm hand on her shoulder and nodded.

Zatanna kissed John's inky black hair and brought her lips to his ear. "Go ahead and show him baby. Show him what I taught you."

John walked over to where Dick and Wyette sat comfortable in their splits, and gracefully sank into a split of his own.

Dick animatedly engaged him and Zatanna could feel the smile on her face shrinking less and less.  ** _Please, let this be the right thing for them,_**  she prayed silently.

"Hey," Dinah whispered as the twins laughed again at something Dick said, "you're still the best."


	5. Chapter 5

Dick and Dinah watched her carefully even cautiously as she stood up and started moving about. She needed to answer the question and she needed to answer it honestly, but she had to think, she had to really think because this was a decision not only about her. This would impact everyone…..eventually.

Zatanna took a shaky breath and kept her eyes away from Dick, who she knew would be tightly wound as he was for every meeting.

She felt like her nerve endings were frayed and wondered briefly if she looked how she felt; a hot mess.

She'd moved to Gotham, despite her best efforts, three and a half months ago with the twins. She knew beforehand that the move was going to be a monumental change in the pattern of their lives and she thought she'd be able to deal with it fairly well. After all she was a traveling entertainer, no place was home to her except the physical walls of Shadowcrest, a manor that had no home. What she didn't take into account was the degree of difference Dick's presence would have in their lives.

The twins were enrolled at Gotham academy, the most prestigious academy in Gotham, and were immediately absorbed into the bat family schedule. They were tutored, discreetly trained, and groomed excessively (or so she thought, Dick argued that this was just the bare bones).

Although they had enrolled the twins into the school with the most discreet of methods and legally Bruce assured her that the pre-school teachers could not reveal to the twins or the public who their father was in fear of the press taking the twins for a spin, Dick insisted on 24hr security in the form of cameras, planted trackers, or physical security (Tim or Damian) both at school and in public.

She had assured him that she placed so many enchantments and protection spells on them that only a divine entity could touch them, but he wouldn't budge. And so the bats were heavily integrated into their lives which she wouldn't have minded so much if they weren't so loose lipped about their side work; the superhero work.

Though they never said anything to suggest it, she was all too sure Wyette and John knew that their new family was not normal.

Not that they were ever really normal, what with the magic powers and all, but she knew they were starting to piece together the superhero aspect of the family and it scared her shitless.

The last thing she needed was them thinking it was cool or natural thing for them to aspire to, because quite frankly she would rather drag them back into hiding than allow them to become the very thing that tore her family apart.

She stressed this to Dick repeatedly and in his defense, he expressed this to his brothers and adoptive father. They never wore the uniforms in front of them or spoke about it openly anymore, but she found a throwing star in John's pocket once and all hell broke loose. He denied that they'd ever been to the bat cave and argued that as a kid he probably saw it lying around the house and picked it up. And though that answer did not pacify her in the slightest, she let it go because she was determined to be the bigger person and she truly wanted this familial relationship to work out. But the next day when John threw a fit about losing his throwing star and not being able to help stop bad guys, she nearly went into cardiac arrest.

-flashback-

"Where honey, where did you get that idea from?" she pleaded with John, after she told him he wasn't getting it.

He pressed his lips together, locked his jaw, and stared at her mutely; his flushed round face determined with the purpose of keeping her in the dark. Never in his four years had John ever thrown a fit or kept a secret from her and in that moment she knew…they weren't just being adopted by the bats, they were going to become the bats.

She tried to react reasonably, she did, she counted to ten in her head, gave him a time out (his first ever which lead to another fit and then tears) and Wyette upset because John was upset, started to cry. She then pleaded with her mother to let John go (from the corner where he stood crying) and when Zatanna refused to take John out of time out, Wyette walked into a corner of her own, sat down facing the wall and started bawling.

And again Zatanna tried to react reasonably, after all time outs were just as frustrating to her as she assumed it was to them, especially since she'd never had to give them out before. When she told Wyette that she was not in time out and thus could not sit in the corner, Wyette laid out on the ground went into a hysterical crying frenzy. Zatanna tried picking her up but she resisted which resulted in John wailing even louder on his sister's behalf.

"Stop it mommy!" he screamed as if she were some kind of deranged lunatic. It sounded like pure chaos, John screaming, Wyette crying, and Zatanna trying to discipline and soothe at the same time. Finally, she met her limit and for the first time ever shouted at her children, the light of her world, and the apples of eye.

"Enough!" she shouted so loud, it hurt her own ears. "Both of you are in time out and there is no yelling in time out! If I hear even a word when I step out of this room, so help me, you two are going to live to regret it." She growled.

Their mouths fell agape, their tiny faces shocked.

"Now," Zatanna seethed, "Pick a corner and zip it."

The twins walked over to their respective corners, with trembling lips and tear filled eyes, and in less than 10 seconds burst into incoherent tears.

_**Well those aren't words**_ , Zatanna thought miserably. She pulled up a chair and picked out a book and sat in the room where they cried, sniffled, and looked back at her occasionally while she paid them no mind….or so they thought.

She couldn't even get through the first page of her book. She felt miserable, like her life was falling apart at the seams. And all this because she wouldn't let him poke his eye out with a throwing star he found while he was with the bats.

The twins, exhausted from their sobbing and screaming, were out before ten minutes had even gone by. She moved them to the couches in the living room, walked out into the foyer of the manor, sound proofed the room and cried hideously. It had to be the worst day of her life EVER as a parent and she hated every single second of it. She knew she was I the right, of course, they were only four years old and it was a lethal weapon that. She had every right to confiscate it and had every right to send them into time outs for their following reactions. This was proper parenting.

Proper parenting was not leaving dangerous, life taking weapons out in front of them and deluding them into thinking that weapons were meant to stop bad guys. She could not even believe that this had even taken place. Her kids were angelic, perfect, a little overly curious, but they'd never ever throw fits like that. Especially John, Wyette would occasionally cry and whimper if she didn't get her way (it usually lasted for about 2 minutes, but John never once had given her a hard time. He was so timid and easy going, but these crazy thoughts that lead to the crazy behavior? This had to be him.

She didn't want to blame Dick for their reactions, of course they could have picked up that kind of behavior from some misbehaving kid in pre-school and that was something she would have to deal with. But he (Dick) had some serious explaining to do.

They had a schedule, the twins lived with Zatanna, and Dick visited them (or vice versa) every weekday. Zatanna taught a class twice a week at Gotham College of the Performing Arts and Dick worked in Bludhaven but moved back; part time, into the Wayne Manor in order to accommodate the twins. He clocked out every day at 3pm but because the twins would get out at 2pm, Zatanna would either take them home or to Wayne Manor where Dick would later come to visit, or vice versa, until about 6.30pm.

That particular day, she was supposed to bring them to Wayne Manor, and when she didn't he panicked. She knew, though he never vocalized it, that his biggest fear was waking up and having them ripped from his life and he took every possible precaution to make sure that nightmare would never come into fruition. He was outside of her house at exactly 3.30pm. He had clearly spent no time wondering where she was and instead decided to find her himself, which was all too fine by her.

The panic and anger in his eyes were unconcealed and before he could knock on the door, it swung open granting him access. He walked into the house and froze when he saw her there with puffy iced over eyes.

Seeing him enraged her, she could not believe the amount of discord and dysfunction that was taking place in their lives because of him and if he thought she was conceding to it anymore, he had another thing coming by a long shot. She was so angry she could barely choke out the words but the minute he walked into the house, she  **Let. Him. Have. It.**

She was seething and Dick due to his panic and resulting anger was no better.

"You're out of your mind if you think you're taking them from me again." He growled.

She laughed blackly, "You can plant on the trackers on them that you want Dick, but if I find out that you or any of the bats have been filling their heads with superhero nonsense, I'll leave this dimension and have you running in circles for an eternity before you hear from me again." She promised.

The blood from his face emptied and a haunted expression crossed his face. "They're my kids too Zee," he whispered.

That pulled her up short and regret coursed through her veins like a rushing wind, the hurt in his voice was all too real and labored the air between them. She knew she was in the wrong then; he hadn't called her that in…..

She took a sharp breath. "I know," she said her voice cracking miserably; "and that terrifies me."

He kissed the sleeping twins on their foreheads and turned to face her (anger anew on his face) before he left.

"Right, wrong, good, evil or worse," he said reminding her of the very words she said to him in the conference room the first time. "I get it now…but you don't want to find out how far I'll go Zatanna. I lost my family once, I'm never losing them again."

With that he closed the door and left.

-End flashback-

Unbeknownst to either of them, Dinah and Bruce had been listening to the entire conversation (apparently Dick wasn't the only person who had planted bugs because they didn't trust her and evidently him) and now they were in an emergency therapy session in the watchtower.

Zatanna paced the room again and shook her head.

"Did you hear me Zatanna?" Dinah asked after a few minutes had gone by. "I asked how do you think this is going. Remember this is a safe space to convey any concerns you have for yourself or the twins."

"This isn't working," Zatanna said in a small voice, pacing around the conference room.


	6. Chapter 6

"This isn't working," Zatanna said in a small voice.

"Zatanna," Dinah said hesitantly, "your concerns are valid, but if you really believe that they have a right to know who their father is, you've got to give him a chance to get to know them too. That means they've got to learn about each other through experiences, make memories, that's how connections are made."

_**Those words etched themselves into the side of her brain as she absentmindedly picked up groceries and placed them into her cart. Their emergency session lasted hours, between Dick's seething and her fuming. It was the worst spent weekend she could remember and now, the twins were with Dick at the park while she ran errands. As she picked up a box of cereal, her mind flashed back to the session again.** _

"You need to let him be a father to them." Dinah said seriously. "And that means he might make choices you might not agree with but, as a parent, that is his choice to make."

"I don't want to be the bad guy," Zatanna replied in a hushed voice, "I'm just trying to protect them."

"And you think I want to hurt them?" Dick asked incredulously. "Why would I-"

"Not intentionally," she groaned, "I know you wouldn't hurt them intentionally, but you're bound to Dick. One way or another, if it's not John poking his eye out with a throwing star today, it'll be Wyette looking to you as a role model as to who she should fall in love with tomorrow, or John looking to you as a man to grow into. Do you get that?"

"And that would be so bad?" Dick asked angrily.

Zatanna looked at him incredulously. "Yeah Dick, that would be pretty damn horrendous don't you think? Especially given this situation which only proves that the life of heroes is not one I want for them. These are my kids, I want better for them."

"And therein lies the problem Dinah," Dick groaned, "You've got two things backwards, for starters you aren't a hero, you haven't been for years and after the stunt you pulled with _ **our**_ kids -that's right our kids, because they are mine too which you seem to casually keep forgetting - calling yourself a hero would be a twisted joke."

"Enough." Dinah warned him seriously and Dick raised his hands in mock surrender.

Zatanna glared at him mutely.

"You're their mom," Dinah breathed as she turned to face Zatanna, "You've been a single parent for four plus years. I can understand that, you're used to unilateral decision making, but you aren't a single parent anymore. You're a separated parent, which means you need to consult him in your decision making and vice versa. Even if you wanted to, uprooting the twins and taking them away from their…. extended family now would be wrong. Think of Giovanni and Nabu, that wasn't fair to you, to Giovanni... would you do that to Dick?"

Dinah shook her head and pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. "I can't even believe I'd have to ask  _ **you**_  that. I can't even believe that you two would stoop as low as to threatening one another." she said incredulously. "Have you two really changed that much? I just can't see that being the case."

Neither of them answered and Dinah narrowed her ice blue eyes.

"You two were mad about each other! Obsessed even! Remember that?" she said looking at them both firmly. "To see that either of you could even muster up the strength to say you'd hurt the other that way; when you've both experienced familial loss…. If I didn't hear it myself I would've never thought it possible." She said frankly. "Honestly, I've never been more disappointed in either of you. Don't you two have anything to say for yourselves?"

Zatanna hung her head while Dick pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep steadying breath.

"I just want to be part of their lives Dinah, I agreed to wait to tell them, I agreed to visit them instead of living next door or something more 'extreme', I signed all the papers including their birth certificates, and all I want is my chance to be a father. Obviously, Zatanna feels threatened by this and I couldn't tell you why but honestly, I don't care. I don't care about what we had, I don't care about any of that crap because that is in the past and things  _ **have**_  changed. Whatever we had, that's dead, over, and done. If she was dragged to hell in front of me, I would only care because she is the mother of my estranged kids, we don't need to be friends, we don't even have to like each other, we just need to be parents and I think I have conceded enough to ask that of her."

Dinah flinched and bit her lip like she'd been the one hurt my sentiment before sighing and relaxing her body. "That's true but the lack of trust and respect you two have for each other is going to destroy whatever shot this has. If you two go about threatening one another or hating one another, those kids won't want to deal with either of you let alone the both of you. Are you two willing to risk that? They've never had a father figure in their lives before and if all you do is cause tension, they won't want one. The same goes for you Zatanna, eventually they could resent you for keeping them from him…...they didn't ask for this situation but it's theirs now if you two can't work together."

Zatanna spun around to face her, "Right now they'll be happy but at what later cost, Dinah? I can't lose them to this life, I won't." she whispered. "Once they find out Dick is their father it won't be long until they find out that he's Nightwing, if they don't know that already. They're already too involved and the further we go down this path the clearer it becomes. They'll want to imitate him, be like him, be heroes and I'd rather be the bad guy in _ **this**_  situation a thousand times over than let them waltz into that life."

"So, I should give up my life, to fit into your version of their idea lives?" Dick asked angrily.

"No!" She said shaking her head. "Yes! I don't know Dick! But I can't lose them to you!"

"I won't lose them to you either," Dick said in a measured tone. "Not again."

"No one is going to lose them to anyone." DInah said firmly, looking Zatanna square in the face. "You both speak as though the twins have no say in the matter. With their interest in mind, we agreed that you two would be amicable with one another and that you would both play parts in their lives. Change will come, for the both of you and for them, you're both going to have to be open to that."

"That means the twins will get to know their father because they have the right to, that he will play that role in their lives as he deems fit and it also means that you (she said now looking at Dick) will do everything in your power to respect her rules and wishes for them because she is still their mother. Together it means you two will be a team, for them. Got it?"

Zatanna pulled up at the register and smiled meekly at the flustered teenage cashier. He blushed and asked her if she needed a bag...his voice broke.

"Sure." she said absentmindedly still thinking about the meeting.

…

Dinah put a gentle hand on her shoulder once they were alone. "You okay?" she asked.

Zatanna just turned to look at her mutely.

Dinah squeezed her shoulder gently, "Trust me, this is going to work out in the long run. This is just a moment leading to better ones for them, you just have to let go a little."

Zatanna shook her and smiled in spite of herself, "How many times did I beg dad to let go just a little….now I'm turning into him."

Dinah smiled, "Giovanni would be so proud right now, even then he would boast about you at the top of his lungs in that heavy Italian accent of his. You were….are the center of his world."

Zatanna placed her hand over Dinah's and squeezed it softly, not wanting her voice to betray her.

"This is what's best for them right now. You know that, don't you?"

"I know," Zatanna replied in a hushed voice, "but they deserve so much more than seperated parents and a half baked custody plan."

"For now…..this is more." Dinah replied.

Zatanna sighed, "Yeah. It is."


	7. Chapter 7

"This isn't working," Zatanna said in a small voice.

"Zatanna," Dinah said hesitantly, "your concerns are valid, but if you really believe that they have a right to know who their father is, you've got to give him a chance to get to know them too. That means they've got to learn about each other through experiences, make memories, that's how connections are made."

_**Those words etched themselves into the side of her brain as she absentmindedly picked up groceries and placed them into her cart. Their emergency session lasted hours, between Dick's seething and her fuming. It was the worst spent weekend she could remember and now, the twins were with Dick at the park while she ran errands. As she picked up a box of cereal, her mind flashed back to the session again.** _

"You need to let him be a father to them." Dinah said seriously. "And that means he might make choices you might not agree with but, as a parent, that is his choice to make."

"I don't want to be the bad guy," Zatanna replied in a hushed voice, "I'm just trying to protect them."

"And you think I want to hurt them?" Dick asked incredulously. "Why would I-"

"Not intentionally," she groaned, "I know you wouldn't hurt them intentionally, but you're bound to Dick. One way or another, if it's not John poking his eye out with a throwing star today, it'll be Wyette looking to you as a role model as to who she should fall in love with tomorrow, or John looking to you as a man to grow into. Do you get that?"

"And that would be so bad?" Dick asked angrily.

Zatanna looked at him incredulously. "Yeah Dick, that would be pretty damn horrendous don't you think? Especially given this situation which only proves that the life of heroes is not one I want for them. These are my kids, I want better for them."

"And therein lies the problem Dinah," Dick groaned, "You've got two things backwards, for starters you aren't a hero, you haven't been for years and after the stunt you pulled with _ **our**_ kids -that's right our kids, because they are mine too which you seem to casually keep forgetting - calling yourself a hero would be a twisted joke."

"Enough." Dinah warned him seriously and Dick raised his hands in mock surrender.

Zatanna glared at him mutely.

"You're their mom," Dinah breathed as she turned to face Zatanna, "You've been a single parent for four plus years. I can understand that, you're used to unilateral decision making, but you aren't a single parent anymore. You're a separated parent, which means you need to consult him in your decision making and vice versa. Even if you wanted to, uprooting the twins and taking them away from their…. extended family now would be wrong. Think of Giovanni and Nabu, that wasn't fair to you, to Giovanni... would you do that to Dick?"

Dinah shook her head and pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. "I can't even believe I'd have to ask  _ **you**_  that. I can't even believe that you two would stoop as low as to threatening one another." she said incredulously. "Have you two really changed that much? I just can't see that being the case."

Neither of them answered and Dinah narrowed her ice blue eyes.

"You two were mad about each other! Obsessed even! Remember that?" she said looking at them both firmly. "To see that either of you could even muster up the strength to say you'd hurt the other that way; when you've both experienced familial loss…. If I didn't hear it myself I would've never thought it possible." She said frankly. "Honestly, I've never been more disappointed in either of you. Don't you two have anything to say for yourselves?"

Zatanna hung her head while Dick pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep steadying breath.

"I just want to be part of their lives Dinah, I agreed to wait to tell them, I agreed to visit them instead of living next door or something more 'extreme', I signed all the papers including their birth certificates, and all I want is my chance to be a father. Obviously, Zatanna feels threatened by this and I couldn't tell you why but honestly, I don't care. I don't care about what we had, I don't care about any of that crap because that is in the past and things  _ **have**_  changed. Whatever we had, that's dead, over, and done. If she was dragged to hell in front of me, I would only care because she is the mother of my estranged kids, we don't need to be friends, we don't even have to like each other, we just need to be parents and I think I have conceded enough to ask that of her."

Dinah flinched and bit her lip like she'd been the one hurt my sentiment before sighing and relaxing her body. "That's true but the lack of trust and respect you two have for each other is going to destroy whatever shot this has. If you two go about threatening one another or hating one another, those kids won't want to deal with either of you let alone the both of you. Are you two willing to risk that? They've never had a father figure in their lives before and if all you do is cause tension, they won't want one. The same goes for you Zatanna, eventually they could resent you for keeping them from him…...they didn't ask for this situation but it's theirs now if you two can't work together."

Zatanna spun around to face her, "Right now they'll be happy but at what later cost, Dinah? I can't lose them to this life, I won't." she whispered. "Once they find out Dick is their father it won't be long until they find out that he's Nightwing, if they don't know that already. They're already too involved and the further we go down this path the clearer it becomes. They'll want to imitate him, be like him, be heroes and I'd rather be the bad guy in _ **this**_  situation a thousand times over than let them waltz into that life."

"So, I should give up my life, to fit into your version of their idea lives?" Dick asked angrily.

"No!" She said shaking her head. "Yes! I don't know Dick! But I can't lose them to you!"

"I won't lose them to you either," Dick said in a measured tone. "Not again."

"No one is going to lose them to anyone." DInah said firmly, looking Zatanna square in the face. "You both speak as though the twins have no say in the matter. With their interest in mind, we agreed that you two would be amicable with one another and that you would both play parts in their lives. Change will come, for the both of you and for them, you're both going to have to be open to that."

"That means the twins will get to know their father because they have the right to, that he will play that role in their lives as he deems fit and it also means that you (she said now looking at Dick) will do everything in your power to respect her rules and wishes for them because she is still their mother. Together it means you two will be a team, for them. Got it?"

Zatanna pulled up at the register and smiled meekly at the flustered teenage cashier. He blushed and asked her if she needed a bag...his voice broke.

"Sure." she said absentmindedly still thinking about the meeting.

…

Dinah put a gentle hand on her shoulder once they were alone. "You okay?" she asked.

Zatanna just turned to look at her mutely.

Dinah squeezed her shoulder gently, "Trust me, this is going to work out in the long run. This is just a moment leading to better ones for them, you just have to let go a little."

Zatanna shook her and smiled in spite of herself, "How many times did I beg dad to let go just a little….now I'm turning into him."

Dinah smiled, "Giovanni would be so proud right now, even then he would boast about you at the top of his lungs in that heavy Italian accent of his. You were….are the center of his world."

Zatanna placed her hand over Dinah's and squeezed it softly, not wanting her voice to betray her.

"This is what's best for them right now. You know that, don't you?"

"I know," Zatanna replied in a hushed voice, "but they deserve so much more than seperated parents and a half baked custody plan."

"For now…..this is more." Dinah replied.

Zatanna sighed, "Yeah. It is."


	8. Chapter 8

**Two months later.**

"We're honored to have you on board Ms. Zatara, I have to say, I've been a fan of you and your father since I was a kid. I used to wait after the shows for autographs and pictures, your dad probably still remembers me. I wanted to be your stagehand-"

Zatanna chuckled awkwardly, "I get it Archie, and really it's no problem. It's great to be back and please call me Zatanna." she assured him.

"I wish we could pay you more, certainly you're used to better contracts, I can talk to the University board and-"

She put her hand up, cutting him off again. "Archie, really, money isn't an issue. This is just me, doing what I love, in a place that feels like home. The teaching, the shows, all of that is what I live for, really. Don't worry about it."

He nodded, his brunette hair sweeping in front of his chocolate brown eyes. "Really Zatanna, you coming back here, is going to save the Theater Arts and Performance program. I can't thank you enough. I hope I'm not being too forward, but I'd love to take you to dinner sometime and thank you personally. This program means the world to me and I'd feel like a cad if I didn't personally do something to thank you."

Zatanna smiled, "That's so generous of you really, I'm really flattered Archie, but this isn't a big deal. I'm just glad to be of service after all these years. So, you'll have to forgive me for being unable take you up on that offer."

He smiled in spite of her rejection, "Of course, I'm sorry, there's always next time though huh?" he said getting up and offering her his hand.

Zatanna stood and shook his hand. "Absolutely."

"Can I show you out?" he asked.

"That's not necessary," she said as she winked and disappeared in a swirl of white mist before him. She stood in the center of the stage and laughed as she saw him (in the small sound room on the upper balcony) throw his head back and shout with excitement.

He grabbed the mic in front of him and fumbled with the buttons in front of him excitedly.

"Zatanna Zatara is back and better than ever!" he shouted into the mic.

She bowed and walked behind the curtain to the stage exit she knew was on the left-hand side of the stage. She chuckled to herself softly as she walked down the street towards Gotham academy to pick up the twins,  _ **It does feel good to start settling in a bit**_ , she confessed to herself.

…

She leaned against the iron wrought fences of Gotham Academy and went through her to do list. It was all done and although it was a satisfying feeling she could admit to herself that she needed more….

"Hey Zee!"

Zatanna spun around to be greeted by the ever chipper Tim Drake and stoic (if such a word could apply to someone so young) Damian Wayne.

"Hey guys," she greeted them warmly. Both of the young men flushed, although Tim smiled generously, and Damian worked to keep his scowl on his face.

Zatanna smirked, it was getting easier being around the bats, some more than others no doubt however looking at Tim's beaming faith gave her confidence that despite her fears the twins were in good hands even when they were out of sight. Moreover, she couldn't be sure due to his mannerism but she had an inkling that Damian had a soft spot for her…..in his own stoic way.

She threw them a quizzical look, "Am I forgetting something?"

"No," Tim said casually, "We usually stop by around this time every day before they get out. Dick gets antsy."

"I don't know why we have to be on babysitting duty, it's not like she's made a run for it yet." Damian grumbled.

Tim threw a withering glance at Damian.

Damian shrugged, "Well, she hasn't." He pointed out sullenly.

Tim turned to face Zatanna with a chagrined apologetic half smile.

Zatanna nodded, none of this surprised her, not in the slightest. Dick was a bat after all, Bruce's first son, if anyone picked up on his inability to forgive  _ **and**_  forget it would be Dick. He had a heart of gold but that didn't mean he'd let you fool him twice, she was lucky to have gotten away with it the first time and admittedly her magic played a huge part in that.

She and Dick had a working relationship, nothing more and nothing less, trust was a minimum they couldn't afford right now; not with so much at stake.

"Yet." she tacked on to Damian's sentence in a halfhearted joking manner. "I haven't made a run for it yet."

Tim smiled weakly and Damian glanced at her from the side of his eyes, reassessing her. He smirked smugly and Zatanna cocked a brow.

"Don't look so smug," she said her smile widening, "I've got a disappearing act you wouldn't believe."

Damian's full attention was on her now, his interest piqued, "I'm just dying to see it." he said in a voice that merited a challenge.

Zatanna shook her head and chuckled a little, there was really something about him that she couldn't stand and yet couldn't help but admire. She glanced at Tim who stood against the fence and looked commonplace, as if the conversation barely held his interest.

She wanted to roll her eyes, she knew all too well from her history with Dick that it most likely meant he was paying the most attention. Again, she couldn't fault the kid, he was sent here on a mission and whether she was joking or not he would go over her every word to make sure that it was only that; a joke.

Zatanna turned her attention back to Damian and smiled mischievously at him, "Well then," she said reaching in her purse and pulling out a flyer from the theater and handing it to him, "You better be sure to stick around for the show."

Damian took the flyer from her hand cautiously, "What's this?" he muttered.

Zatanna went to stand beside him and pointed to the center of the flyer. "Well Damian, I know you don't get out much but that's a theater, people put on shows there and other people pay to see it. Funny that I should have to explain that to a detective, huh?" she joked.

Damian's eyes narrowed, "I meant what's this got to do with anything?" he elaborated.

"It's my new place of employment." Zatanna beamed, "I thought I might as well put some roots down here and put a few of my tricks to good use."

Tim's face perked up, "You got a job?" he asked in a surprised tone of voice.

"Of course, you did." he said answering his own rhetorical question. "Congrats, that's great."

"Thanks," Zatanna said warmly, "I'll be teaching and performing there, you know dust off the cobwebs and get into a little light show biz again. It's really just to keep me busy and loose, but it'll keep the theater around for a while too which will be great for the kids in the community."

"No doubt." Tim agreed excitedly, "Hey maybe I could come to one of your shows some time, I've heard only good things about them. Dick used to talk about them all the time, he said you'd never even gotten a bad review. He even promised to take me once…." he said trailing off a bit awkwardly.

"Right, before I went AWOL." She guessed.

Tim nodded sheepishly, "But it was a long time ago and you had your reasons and no can fault-"

"Hey," Zatanna said while lightly punching him on the shoulder, saving him from his fumbling words, "Don't worry about it, no biggie, looks like I owe you a magic show."

Tim smiled, grateful for her merciful intervention.

She turned to Damian who'd lost interest in the conversation, "You should swing by, maybe you'd learn a thing or two."

"What could you teach me?" he drawled arrogantly.

"Manners and humility for starters." she retorted. "But after that, we could work on your sleight of hand or attention to detail, they really come in handy in the business." she said clearly no longer referring to show business.

Damian snorted, "I was trained by the league of assassin's and my father, do you honestly think you; a magician whose been out of practice for nearly half a decade, could outwit me?"

Zatanna smiled sweetly, "Oh but I already have." she said looking down at her wrist and glancing at the time on his watch.

"Hey!" he spluttered, looking down at his wrist, and noting for the first time her black watch on his wrist. "You must've used your magic, you are a sorceress after all." he spat.

Zatanna laughed, "Nope, did that one fair and square. It's all about speed-"

"And misdirection, I know." Damian growled. "But I was watching you the whole time, you never even got close enough to…."

Realization and chagrin lit his face with color, "The flyer." he said through his teeth.

Zatanna nodded as she slowly began to take off his watch.

"I would pay to see that look on his face any day." Tim laughed freely, "Good one Zee."

"That won't happen again," Damian promised her darkly as they swapped watches.

"It doesn't need to, I've proven my point." she said as she winked at him and turned her body to face the school again just as the final bell rang.

Tim, still chuckling, moved to put his hand on Damian's shoulder. "We'll see you in a bit Zee."

"Or you could stay, and we could walk over to the house altogether. John and Wyette, would love it." she offered.

"Sure," Tim said.

"Whatever." Damian mumbled.


	9. Chapter 9

He picked up the phone hesitantly as it rang, he was at work trying to make sense of a particularly elusive scheme some lunatic bank robber was putting together, 2 bank robberies in two weeks. Same execution plan and yet something was different about the second case, something that led him to believe that there was more to come.

He looked at the phone number and read the caller ID, in seconds the phone was pressed to his ear.

"Hello?"

"Hey Dick, it's Janelle, how are you?" she asked.

"Good Janelle, thanks for asking." Dick said cautiously.

Janelle was a good friend of Dinah's and the teacher of Wyette and John. She knew everything there was to know about the twins, the Bats, the League and when she found out the twins would be attending Gotham Academy, she kindly volunteered to teach their class in order to keep an eye out for them in case something were to happen at school.

Although John and Wyette were well behaved, they were just turning five and couldn't be expected to control their powers when they manifested. Thus, having a teacher who was also a homo magi, made things a lot easier to account for.

"I'm sorry to bother you at work, can only imagine how busy you are." she said with a bit of chagrin and reluctance in her voice.

"Is something wrong?" Dick asked tensely. "You can't be calling during school hours with good news."

Janelle sighed, "They don't give out the title of detective to just anyone, huh?" she joked weakly. "I think Wyette should go home early. She's had a pretty rough day."

"What do you mean?" Dick asked. "Did something happen?"

"There's been a small incident and Wyette's reacting like any child would, but as her tantrum got worse a bit of her power slipped out and the classroom was a mess."

Dick tore his keys off their hook and started for the door. "Did anyone get hurt? Did anyone notice?"

"No, no." she assured him quickly, "I took care of that but I'm afraid her tantrum might upset John when he comes back from recess, their flows of magic are so closely intertwined I didn't want to risk it, so if you wouldn't mind-"

"I'm on my way." Dick said as he put the keys in the ignition and hung up the phone.

He jogged into the school briskly and went straight for the office, he saw the secretary and just before he spoke he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Dick."

He spun around to face the voice and Janelle stood in front of him, her mahogany brown hair in a neat ponytail held up by a creme bow that matched her fitted sweater dress. Wyette, whose hair sat in an uneven tangled mess, slid off her chair and ran over to him sobbing. He ducked down and scooped her up in his arms.

"What happened?" he asked either of them. Wyette tucked her head into the crook of his neck and cried harder as she clutched her arms around his neck. Dick's heart sank, he'd never seen her so low. She was usually so happy and easygoing, even at the young age of four she never let anything bother her, it was her natural disposition to be happy; a childhood trait of both her parents.

Janelle's shapely lips pulled into a frown at the sight of the girl. "Apparently a disagreement broke out at recess about whose turn it was to play with a toy and because Wyette refused to give it up, one of the girls stuck gum in her hair. The teacher on duty didn't notice and another one of the girls tried to help Wyette by cutting the gum out and clearly it didn't go well." she explained before shaking her head in exhaustion.

Wyette pulled back to look at him, fisting her hair in her hands to show him before throwing her head back and wailing.

"Mommy!" she cried. "I want mommy!"

Dick looked to Janelle expectantly and she answered his unspoken question, "We've tried reaching Zatanna, but she must be busy or something. There's no answer."

"She's probably teaching at the university right now." Dick explained.

"I'm so sorry." Janelle said suddenly. "I wish I could've been there to stop it but between monitoring and occasionally suppressing their magic with my own and watching a class of twenty other kids, I thought recess-"

"Hey," Dick said cutting her off softly, "It's fine. We appreciate all that you do Janelle, really, we don't expect you to be omnipresent. They are kids after all, stuff like this happens."

Wyette continued to weep inconsolably into his neck and Dick pulled her off his shoulder and onto the ground.

"I've tried to soothe her, but she's pretty distraught." Janelle explained.

"Hey, hey, hey," he said trying to get her attention, "Come on, you're okay."

Wyette shook her head coughing and crying while Janelle looked on. "Mommy…"

Dick's heart sank as he mustered up the strength to smile and took her small hands away from her face and smiled, "Hey, it's okay, mommy's gonna be here soon but right now, you've got me and I've got you. So we're gonna fix it together. Okay?"

Wyette nodded through her tears.

"Hey," Dick said, wiping the tears from her face and picking up her chin, "We're gonna get through it. You know we will."

She nodded again trying to stifle her tears and only slightly succeeding.

"So what are we gonna do?" Dick asked.

"Fi-fix it." Wyette mumbled.

"Yeah," Dick said, "And why will it get fixed."

Wyette took her hand and wiped her face, "B-because you've got me."

"And I've got you." Dick promised before kissing her forehead, scooping her up and spinning her around until he heard a small squeal and giggle. He set her on the ground and chuckled. "You ready to fix it?"

Wyette with a resigned frown but set look of determination on her face looked up to where he towered above her and nodded before taking a deep breath. Wyette reached up and stood on the tips of her toes as Dick scooped down to pick her up, she took his face between her hands and brought their foreheads together and closed her eyes.

Dick could feel the air rush out of his lungs and the hairs on his neck stand up. His eyes, now opened with shock, closed after a beat instinctually.

**Zatanna.**

It was like his subconscious breathed the word to his conscious mind, as he recalled all the times she'd done the same thing to him in their youth. It was something she'd done to comfort him time and time again, just as her father did it to comfort her and now Wyette did it to comfort herself or maybe even him….he wasn't sure. He was damn sure of the part that came next.

He brought his hand up to gently stroke her hair and broke the embrace for only a moment to plant his lips on her forehead before returning to the same position for a few more moments. As if it were the release she were waiting for Wyette breathed a sigh of release and rested her head on his shoulder in a state of total comfort and relaxation.

Dick turned around to smile at Janelle who flushed considerably.

"Thanks for the call." Dick said as he reached out to shake Janelle's hand.

"Thanks for answering." she smiled. He nodded and turned to leave, just as he'd walked out of the office door she called out to him.

"Dick?" Janelle called out.

He turned to face her.

"I know you're new at…..at all of this but I hope someone is letting you know that you're doing a great job." she gushed.

"Thank you." Dick said in a shocked but pleased tone.

She flushed and smiled at him, "Well….I'll let you go then."

He nodded and watched as she hurried down the hall and into the stairwell.


	10. Chapter 10

Wyette held Dick's hand as Alfred evened out the rest of her hair.

"There you go miss, just like new." Alfred said as he put the scissors down and handed her a mirror.

He wavy dark hair was notably shorter, it sat just at her shoulders now apart from the bangs that sat in the front of her head and as she looked on in the mirror Alfred untied his satin white tie and used it as a bow to hold back her hair.

Wyette who had been frowning at the cut just a second earlier smiled as she brought her finger to the bow and wiped the last of her tears from her eyes.

"Better?" Dick asked hesitantly.

Wyette gave him a look of concern, "Is it pretty?" she asked in her small voice.

"You're more than pretty," Dick promised, "You're perfect."

Wyette smiled and turned around to beam at Alfred. "Thank you!" she said hugging his legs.

Alfred bent down and tapped her on the nose, "Anytime pretty girl and for enduring such a tragedy, I believe a reward is in order."

A sudden gasp ripped through the room, the turned and saw Barbara at the kitchen door with a bag of groceries in hand and a look of shock on her face.

Wyette ran up to Barbara in excitement and Barbara, with effort, composed her features.

"Look Barbara, Alfie gave me a haircut and a bow!" she mused.

"Wow," Barbara said in an animated manner, "It's beautiful, you're beautiful."

Wyette's smile lit her face with color as she looked to Dick, who winked at her and gave her a thumbs up.

"Wow," Barbara said again, "I wonder what your mom's gonna say."

Alfred gave Dick an unshielded glance that said _ **I told you so**_  before grabbing an apple off the table.

"Miss Wyette, would you be so kind as to pick vegetables with me from the garden?" he asked.

Wyette looked at Dick expectantly. Dick got off the stool and grabbed a small straw hat and basket from the kitchen's side door.

"I think you're gonna need these." he said.

Wyette skipped over to him and let him fix the bow over her straw hat and helped her put on her gardening gloves. Alfred quickly took off his vest and put on his matching straw hat and gloves.

"And we're off." he said taking Wyette's free hand and leading her towards the gardens.

He and the twins often went gardening when they had the spare time, it was to everyone's surprise how obvious a liking Alfred had taken to the twins. He spoiled them with gifts and matching ensembles frequently, so much so that even Bruce seemed a bit taken aback.

Barbara shook her head and smiled as she walked over to where Dick stood watching Alfred talk to Wyette on a bended knee about something.

"It's his first girl." Barbara explained.

Dick turned to look at her skeptically.

"How else would you explain it? He's practically been running a boys home since Bruce was a kid, now he's not only dealing with preschoolers but with a little girl, who is possibly the sweetest thing since candy. He can't help but fawn all over her and John's the nicest little boy there's ever been, he'll probably grow up nicer than Tim and that's too nice." She elaborated.

"I guess there's that." Dick allowed.

Barbara watched as Wyette pulled something out of the ground and Alfred laughed, which of course led to her own laughter.

"God, she's just like Zatanna. All she has to do is smile and everyone is wrapped around her fingers. You know, I used to think it was the magic but watching Wyette…...it's hereditary. I'd be annoyed if I wasn't wrapped around her fingers myself." she said elbowing him. "Well, at least now she doesn't look exactly like Zatanna, I can be a little less bitter about it."

Dick shook his head and smirked, "Well that makes two of us then."

Barbara looked at him scathingly.

"What?" Dick asked.

"You're obviously not happy about her haircut. I think it's because now she looks just a fraction less like her mom." Barbara said without reproach.

Dick rolled his eyes and walked over to the fridge.

"You're kidding right." He said.

"Not even a little." Barbara said jumping up on the counter to sit across from where he now leaned with a smoothie in hand. "Is that why you had Alfred cut it?"

"One of the girls in her class stuck gum in her hair and another little girl cut it in an effort to help. It didn't go well." Dick explained. "She didn't take that very well so I had to pick her up and I brought her to Alfred fix it."

Barbara nodded in understanding and he watched as a pensive made way unto her face. "I wonder whose gonna take it harder, her or Zatanna….You do know Zatanna's gonna flip when she sees this right?"

Dick sighed, "She most likely won't be happy but," he paused and shrugged, "It happens, this is normal. Things like this happen to kids all the time. I'm actually pretty relieved."

She looked at him in confusion.

"For a while, I was scared maybe Zee was right in her initial assessment, maybe they don't need me….you know, a human dad. I mean she has magic, she can do anything, be anything they need and maybe my being in their life wouldn't really contribute much but today I felt…..I felt like more than some glorified babysiiter, I felt like a dad, I felt useful like my presence in their lives, well at least in Wyette's life today meant something."

"Of course your presence meant something, they love you." Barbara said.

"I know," Dick said, "I know and Babs I loved them the second I saw them. The second I looked at them I knew, I knew who they were to me and it felt like for the first time in years that I started breathing. It didn't take more than that first second for me to know who I was supposed to be in their lives but it…. maybe I just can't fit the bill. They don't know who I am and look how great they turned out; without me."

"Dick, John literally shadows your every step, he adores you. He doesn't see you as Nightwing or Robin or even a cop, he sees you as Dick Grayson and is blown away and inspired by you. That's what a father does and Wyette? You're like her knight in shining armor, I don't care what anyone says she gets her strength, her kindness from you. What's even better is that you don't coddle her, you inspire her to be strong for herself, you encourage her independence and her voice, and she already uses that voice for others not just John. That's all you Dick."

"Thanks Babs." He smiled.

"Don't thank me, it's the truth. I hate hearing that you feel that way, it's not fair to you and I won't forgive her for this either. She can't just waltz back into your life like she-"

"Barbara please." Dick said cutting her off.

"Please what, Dick. I'm right and you know it. This is so fucked up a situation that it makes everything else about this family seem normal. Why can't they know who you are to them? She's acting like you're the flight risk here which is ridiculous. It's been months and it's not fair to them either." Barbara stormed.

"We made a deal Babs, when they're ready-"

"When they're ready or when she's ready?" she exclaimed. "Let's face it, if you tell them today or three years from now, what difference will it make? This is just leverage, leverage so you can lap after her for the rest of your natural life. As if it wasn't bad enough that she left five years ago without telling you

"I left first Babs and you know it." Dick pointed out.

"To help save another world!" Barbara countered. "Helena needed you, you couldn't say no. She can't fault you for that, it was a family emergency. You said yourself you two were just hooking up at the time, it wasn't anything serious."

"It was complicated."

Barbara threw her hands in the air, exasperated. "Of course it was."

"What does that mean?" Dick asked taking notice of her tone.

Barbara looked at him evenly and slid off the counter and walked over to her bag of groceries. "If you have to ask, than it doesn't really matter does it?" she muttered.

"Babs…"

"What are we Dick? What is this?" she asked suddenly. "I'd like to know, I can't stand around here guessing anymore. One minute we're together, the next we're not, this whole thing is like some unspoken debate and I just want to know where we stand."

Dick frowned, "Oh come on Babs, where is this even coming from?"

"From years of history, before Bruce dragged her back we were dating, at least I thought we were. We were dating and talking about moving in together. You wanted me in Bludhaven and I wanted you in Gotham, do you remember that?"

"I am in Gotham." He pointed out.

"Be serious Dick." she said. "Please, you owe me that much."

Dick sighed. "Things are just-"

"Complicated," she finished, "Things between us are always complicated but this isn't the same and you know it. You have a family now Dick, you either want me to be a part of it or you don't."

"Babs, I'm still trying to get the grasp of this whole family thing, it's not that I am trying to exclude you from the final picture."

"Are you still in love with her?" Barbara asked carefully.

"What?" Dick asked in shock.

"Are you still in love with her Dick?"

Dick looked at her incredulously.

"Don't look at me like that," Barbara countered with a smirk on her face, "It's just that you two have some kind of pull to one another and I know how much she meant to you, even when you two were on and off and just friends. You always loved her."

Dick shrugged. "People could easily say the same thing about you and me."

She laughed darkly, "Yeah, I know but now I'm saying it about you and her and this time, you two have kids together. It's a whole new game. You'll always be connected to her, you'll always be in contact with her, you're going to fall in love with her all over again."

Dick went to argue and found that his words left him as he took in the knowing look on her face. The fact of the matter was he knew all of this, he'd thought about all of this more often than he cared to mention, and the thought terrified him.

Worse? Was the knowledge that despite his best efforts he knew if he wasn't absolutely careful and, on his guard,, he'd fall right back into loving her. The girl that took his heart and ran with it.

Even Worse than that? Knowing that part of him had never stopped loving her completely.

Worse still? Knowing that some part of him, a part of him that he knew would continue to grow if he didn't root it out sooner rather than later, was already in the process of falling in love her.

"It's complicated." Barbara said in his stead. "I know but when you work it out, would you let me know?"

Dick nodded.

Barbara gave him a small smile and walked over to where he stood, she brought her hand to his face in a silent question of permission. His lack of physical response was all the response she needed, she stood on her toes and kissed him softly on the lips. She pulled away and although he let her, a second later, he sealed his lips over hers in a firm kiss. He pulled back and kissed her softly two more times.

"It's always the same." She breathed.

"The same and yet different every single time." Dick muttered.

"Complicated." They agreed in unison.

Together they turned to watch Alfred and Wyette gardening through the window.


	11. Chapter 11

Zatanna walked through the door with John in tow. John immediately ran into the kitchen and she followed all too eager to find her daughter. She turned the corner only to see John running outside and Alfred watching after him, shaking his head in amusement.

The sight of her old friend stopped her in her tracks, she wondered for a moment what she could possibly have to say to him. Would she have to apologize? Would he forgive her if she did?

Of all the people at Wayne Manor, she'd come to love and depend on Alfred the most. He used to be her walking diary and now she was in his kitchen, watching her kids, the kids he apparently considered grandchildren. Perhaps he felt wronged too.

Zatanna pushed her mental chagrin aside and cleared her throat.

"Miss Zatanna," Alfred said in surprise, "I was wondering when you'd pay that promised visit. How are you my dear, it's been entirely too long."

Zatanna smiled, "I've been meaning to pay that visit Alfred, I promise, everything's just been so hectic." she said waving towards the door as she alluded to the twins.

Alfred nodded in quiet understanding.

"And I'm doing good, thanks for asking, I'm a bit anxious but that can't really be helped." she continued.

"You've no reason to be anxious Miss, Wyette is outside with her father; gardening." Alfred informed her. "Take a look."

Zatanna crossed the kitchen and watched as Dick spoke to John and Wyette who were a cute little straw hat.

She breathed a sigh of relief and walked over to the stool by the side of the counter, she sagged into her seat and brought her face into her hand as Alfred closed the door.

"Are you quite alright Miss?" he asked when he went to stand beside her.

She brought her face out of her hands and smiled at him thought small tear buds pricked her eyes.

"Yes," she smiled while she fanned her face, "I was just so worried, but she's fine."

Alfred smiled, "Fine, indeed." he promised.

Zatanna laughed, "I knew she was fine, Janelle said she was fine and Dick would have called if it were anything serious but I was just so scared. I was teaching and didn't see the call, and…...and I don't know why I was so scared, I knew she was fine." she laughed again and tears slipped down her face.

Alfred handed her his handkerchief and she thanked him.

"I'm sorry," she breathed. "I know I must sound like a lunatic right now and this is how you see me after so many years." she said scolding herself.

"Ah it's nothing," Alfred assured her, "I already knew you were a lunatic. Some things are hard to forget."

Zatanna laughed again more soundly this time.

"You're a bit more sentimental than I remember though, but I suppose being a single parent of four year old twins will do that to just about anybody." he smirked. "Tea?"

"Please." Zatanna breathed as she watched him work about the kitchen.

She watched as he fixed her tea exactly the way she liked, black with brown sugar and a touch of Calvados, an apple liquor he'd introduced her to on her 21st birthday. Her face flushed with appreciation as he turned back to her and placed the tea cup before her.

"Zatanna's Tea." he announced. "With a pinch of magic."

Zatanna smiled, "You remembered."

"Yes, well how could I forget, I prepared it everyday for over a year." Alfred reminded her.

"If memory serves me right, I wasn't the only person who drank it everyday that year." she smirked.

Alfred smiled in return, as if pleased she remembered their secret. "Well you know what I say-"

"Strong tea for strong people." Zatanna finished. She beamed at him as she realized that nothing had changed between them, it was like a sigh of relief. They were still friends, still confidants.

"How have you been Alfred?" she asked.

"I've been good, you know Bruce and the boys keep me busy but I've been good." he promised. "I see you've been just as busy if not busier since the last time I saw you."

Zatanna cocked her head to the side. "I'm sure I don't know what you mean Alfred, I've been more than relaxed these past few years. What with Bruce and Dick scouring the globe for me, me secretly giving birth to two little magicians, and trying to keep a balanced diet; I really haven't been up to much."

"I see you picked up sarcasm as a new trick" Alfred smiled.

Zatanna laughed, "Yes, one of many new tricks I've acquired. I put it to use more often than I should these days."

"That's a shame, magicians shouldn't be so quick to reveal themselves."

Zatanna shrugged. "I think I've already been found out."

Alfred leaned in and looked over his shoulder and around the room dramatically. "I know." he whispered.

Zatanna laughed again and Alfred smiled.

"I've got to say," he said seriously, "I've missed that infectious laugh of yours but Wyette has one just like it and she laughs all the time so that's been a comfort."

"I wish I could take credit for it, she makes happiness look so easy. I think it's something she got from Dick, when he was younger." Zatanna admitted.

"I couldn't agree more." Alfred smiled.

The door swung open and Wyette and John entered the room with baskets filled with vegetables.

"Thank you." Alfred said taking the baskets from them both.

"Alfie?" John asked quietly.

"Yes my boy?"

"What are you making?" he probed gently.

"Why do ask?" Alfred countered.

John shuffled on his feet but kept Alfred's gaze.

"S'lota vegetables." He pointed out.

The adults in the room smiled, not one surprised that John's curiosity was piqued. He asked questions about anything and everything, Dick secretly believed that it was the reason Bruce had taken such a strong liking to him. He was a natural born detective.

"Well if you stay for dinner, I will make anything you want." Alfred promised.

"Anything?" Wyette and John exclaimed in shock and in excitement.

"Anything." Alfred promised. "But only if you stay for dinner."

Wyette and John looked over to Zatanna's seat with pleading eyes. She looked up at Dick who smiled and shrugged.

"Sure," Zatanna said untying the bow from Wyette's straw hat, "We can-"

A sudden gasp cut her off as she took in Wyette's new haircut. She threw her hand over her mouth in horror.

John looked at his sister and then his mom, it was almost as if he were trying to read the atmosphere.

"What happened your hair, Wye?" he asked after a moment of stifled silence.

"We fixed it." Wyette said.

"Was it broken?" John asked.

Dick squatted down to ruffle her hair, earning a smile from her. "Yeah but it's okay now, because we fixed it."

"But who broke it Wye?" John asked.

Zatanna was still simply staring.

"Jasmine broke it because I didn't give her the toy at recess," Wyette explained in a sad voice. "But it's okay now because Alfie fixed it and it's pretty. Do you think it's pretty mommy?"

Zatanna took her hand off her mouth and smiled with obvious effort, "Of course baby, you're always pretty, more than pretty you're perfect." she said her voice breaking on the last word.

"Okay," Alfred said, "Let's go wash up so we can start cooking for dinner, shall we?"

"Okay." the twins agreed easily as Alfred led them out of the room.

"Well there's no other way to explain it." Dick sighed. "A girl put gum in her hair and another little girl tried to cut it, it went bad, and Janelle called me soon after. She tried calling you first but you were probably working. We tried everything else first, but apparently you can only cut gum out. I think Alfred doing it made it easier."

"Why didn't you call me, I could have fixed it, she wouldn't have needed the haircut."

"I didn't see the need to call you, it wasn't a big deal." Dick said coolly.

"To you." Zatanna pointed out.

"What?"

"It wasn't a big deal to you, but it's a big deal to me."

"A girl put gum in her hair, gum needs to be cut out, so I brought her to Alfred. It happens to kids all the time." Dick reminded her.

"Not my kids." Zatanna snapped.

"Our kids." Dick snapped back.

They faced each other and waited for the other to erupt, after a long moment Zatanna brought her fingers to her temple and sighed. When she opened her eyes again, they weren't upset but saddened.

"Why didn't you just call me Dick?" She asked.

"She's four years old Zatanna, you can't coddle them forever. Would you have regrown the hair magically? How would that look for keeping up appearances? These things are a normal part of childhood, you've got to let them-"

"I don't care about her hair Dick." She said tersely, cutting him off. "I care that you didn't think to call me, to at least let me know everything was okay."

She sighed as confusion flitted across his face. She took her seat on the stool again and brought her face into her hands before huffing out a big breath and turning to look at him completely unguarded.

"I didn't see Janelle's call until I went to pick them up. When she told me you picked up Wyette due to some situation I panicked, okay? I was scared out of my mind, the one time something goes wrong in school and I wasn't there. You were and you didn't even call to tell me what happened or what was about to happen. I knew she was fine, if it were an emergency you would have called me, I know...but not knowing where she was or what was going on…"

She shook her head and laughed at herself as she dabbed her eyes, "Sorry," she whispered.

"It's okay." He replied after clearing his throat.

She looked at him from underneath her long wet lashes and tried to smile before her full lips jutted out into a pout and a small sob escaped her.

"Hey," Dick said walking over to the counter and sitting in the stool beside hers. He reached over to rub her back and then thought better of it.

"Sorry," she muttered. "I'm fine, I was just really worried about her, nothing like this has ever really happened before. You did the right thing, you were there for her, I really appreciate it."

Dick didn't say anything for a moment and she turned to face him fully.

"Was she upset?" Zatanna asked.

He thought about lying to her, to spare her feelings and then decided to go with the truth.

"Yeah," he replied, his voice low and quiet. "She was pretty distraught, I've never seen her so miserable. She's usually the happy outgoing one even when she doesn't get her way, so seeing her that way was new to me. I mean I've seen her throw micro tantrums, but she's usually smiling minutes later. This time was different though, her hair was a tangled, gummy mess, and Janelle couldn't get her to stop crying. Even when I was there she cried for you."

He watched her face and waited to see if he could detect any happiness from his honesty.

Maybe, he thought, she was glad Dick's presence alone couldn't console Wyette.

Instead he was face to face with a maternal engrossment that truly became her in the moment. She was every bit the doting mother, he realized, she only cared about Wyette, she wasn't seeking some kind of parental preference high or even looking for an opportunity to tell him where he had done wrong so she could input her own advice.

As if to prove his point she encouraged his story on.

"Well what did you do? To comfort her?" she urged him

He smirked and shook his head.

"What?" she asked.

His smirk grew more pronounced though he tried to fight it.

"What? What'd you do?" Zatanna asked with a smile in her voice.

"I did your thing." he confessed. "And it worked."

Zatanna arched a brow at him. "What thing, I don't have a thing."

"Your thing," he elaborated poorly. "Your calming thing."

Zatanna nodded slowly in obvious lack of understanding. "Right…."

"It doesn't have a name." he said.

"Right, no, I get it, it's my thing." Zatanna said sarcastically with a straight face. "My calming thing…..that calms things because it's my thing."

Dick noted her tone and echoed it. "Yep. That thing."

They looked at each other evenly and in seconds they'd lost the battle of fighting their smiles and started laughing. As they laughed Dick paused to hear hers, the way the small sound filled the room and coursed through her body like ocean waves on the sand. He could feel his body relaxing at the sound, as if his muscles had committed it to memory.

Her eyes flew open and he saw the small spark of light, it shone of glee and mischief. The twinkle in her eye that always got him in more trouble than he's bargained for, the light that for so many years guided him onto a path of healing, of growth.

He gently and slowly moved his hands to either sides of her face and brought their heads together. He watched as shock and then comprehension flooded warmed her features and burned in the palms of his hands. Her eyes flitted closed and his followed en suit as his hands moved gently into her wavy dark folds of hair.

He felt as she brought one of her hands to his cheek and the other to the nape of his neck, and sighed. Her sigh felt like a quiet confession and in response he gently caressed the side of her face with the thumb of his left hand; not lost in her hair.

Her body hummed in reply and her fingers tangled themselves more into his hair. His breathe washed over her face.

Someone cleared their throat and they jumped apart.

Damian, whose face was flushed and in a scowl, walked in awkwardly and made a beeline for the fridge.

"I was just getting water, didn't mean to intrude on anything." he muttered.

"No-" Zatanna started.

"There's nothing to intrude on." DIck clarified.

Damian closed the fridge and narrowed his eyes, "Right, so what was all of that then?"

"The thing." Zatanna and Dick spluttered.

Damian cocked an incredulous brow at them.

"We were just clarifying something." Dick said.

"I agree, things couldn't be more clear from where I was standing." Damian said as he made his way towards the kitchen exit.

He paused before leaving. "And next time you two want to clarify something, try at the very least, doing it somewhere a little less crowded."


	12. Chapter 12

As he left Zatanna stood up abruptly and started washing the vegetables, leaving Dick bereft at the stool.

A moment later he stood up and started to help her wash the vegetables by the sink.

"Don't pay him any mind. What we were doing, it didn't mean anything, he misread the situation." Dick told her.

"Sure." she agreed. "He lacked context. Earnest mistake."

"What's up with Damian?" An all too familiar voice entering the kitchen asked. "He just stormed out of here like a bat out of hell….Zatanna." Barbara noted with surprise.

Zatanna smiled weakly. "Hey Barbara, how have you been?"

Barbara looked from her to Dick in surprise. "I've been good thanks." She said after a beat.

Zatanna returned to washing vegetables with Dick by her side, the awkward tension in the room palpable.

"We're just washing the vegetables the kids picked from the garden." Dick explained unncessarily.

"I can see that." Barbara replied. "Where are the twins?" she asked after another awkward beat.

"They're washing up with Alfred." Dick said. "Maybe I should go see what's holding them up." Dick suggested.

"Yeah." Zatanna agreed.

"And I'll help Zatanna with the vegetables." Barbara offered.

"Great, thanks Babs." he said as he turned, kissed her on the cheek and went in search of Alfred and the twins.

Barbara took his spot at the sink and began washing vegetable alongside Zatanna before she chuckled.

"I've got to say for a former spy and a vigilante, Dick Grayson still really sucks at playing it cool." she mused.

Zatanna didn't reply but nodded mutely.

"It's one of the things I love about him, after all these years, he's still just this big ol softie at heart."

Mmm. Zatanna hummed in agreement.

"He's a good man." Barbara continued. "A great man and an even better father."

Zatanna nodded and Barbara leaned against the sink to look at her.

"Oh come on Zatanna, you can say something. You speak more languages than I can count including backwards. Agree, disagree, I won't bite your head off."

Zatanna sighed. "I don't know what you want me to say Barbara. This situation is less than ideal for everyone involved right now. I just don't want to step on anyone's toes."

"How considerate of you." Barbara said firmly. "If only you'd been this considerate five years ago. What a world of difference it would have made."

Zatanna looked at her sternly, "You have no idea what you're talking about." she said gravely.

"I think I do." Barbara snapped.

"Surprise surprise, you've got it all figured out. Hey Babs, tell me what else is new?" Zatanna cut back.

"Wouldn't you like to know." Barbara snapped back.

"I'm not doing this with you, I don't owe you anything.".

"Fine then don't, but you should know that all those years ago, I thought we were finally becoming friends. I thought I had some clue as to who you were. I thought you loved him, I thought you cared about his well being." Barbara seethed.

"Of course I did Barbara, but things changed."

"No, you changed." Barbara said cutting her off. "You robbed him of the single most thing he wanted in this world the most; family. And I don't care how you spin it, if you ever loved him, you wouldn't have put him through the torture of searching for you, mourning you, and then mourning the loss he never even knew he had once you returned."

"How dare you" Zatanna seethed. "You think I didn't mourn? You think I didn't feel for his pain? You have no idea what I went through, you have no idea what I felt for him, you can't even begin to imagine so don't you sit there and assume that you do."

"How can you feel for his pain when he can't even tell his own kids who he is. He can't mention his paternity, his alter ego, our alter egos, it's like you're taking every step to make sure they know nothing about him even though all he does is try to be part of their lives."

"It's for their safety." Zatanna said exasperated.

"No I think it's for your safety. You're afraid to tell them and Dick's paying the price. You've made it clear that you only care for the twins. That's fine but I won't let you hurt him." Barbara retorted. "Not again."

Zatanna opened her mouth to reply before she heard two small feet running towards the kitchen. The twins burst into the kitchen in fits of laughters.

"Look who I found." Dick said as he entered in after them.

"Hi Barbara." John smiled.

The tension in the room evaporated immediately.

"Hey bud," she replied.

Alfred walked into the kitchen and noted the vegetables. "Oh it seems part of the work has been done for us."

"What are you guys cooking?" Barbara asked.

"Everything!" the twins exclaimed.

"Would you two like to lend a helping hand?" Alfred asked.

"No I think you guys have got it." Barbara chirped. "I'll be in the bat….the office." she said correcting herself.

She looked at Zatanna who obviously realized the effort she made to respect her rules regarding the kids despite their positions.

"Call me when it's ready." she said as she took her leave.

"Are you staying to help, Zatanna?" Dick asked expectantly.

She looked at the twins who had already begun trying to help Alfred pick out recipes.

"No." She replied. "It's too crowded in here."


	13. Chapter 13

**Ten Weeks Later.**

Zatanna glanced at her watch and sighed, she was going to be late. She texted Tim, who she knew would be waiting at the school anyway and gave her begrudged blessing to bring the twins to Wayne Manor. Admittedly she should be grateful to Archie for the last minute urgent meeting, though she loathed to admit it after her spat with Barbara, she wasn't keen on hanging around the manor for long. He texted back immediately with an okay and a smiley face.

She sighed and tapped her foot impatiently waiting for Archie. She thought about leaving him a message and leaving and then thought better of it.

Archie came running down the hall and came to a skidded stop in front of Zatanna, he looked up at her breathlessly his face flushed with effort and chagrin.

"I'm so sorry." he huffed. "I know you're busy."

She smirked in spite of her mood. "Breathe Arch, I'm still here."

He patted himself down and fumbled with his office keys, he turned to look at her and smiled goofily. "I know, thanks."

He opened the door and waved her into the office. "After you my lady."

She smiled and watched as he turned a violent shade of red.

"Thank you." she said walking in and taking a seat. Archie hurriedly walked behind the desk and tried to organize all the papers on it before giving up and folding his hands before looking at her.

"Zatanna the work you do here is incredible." he remarked.

She groaned internally, she was really hoping the urgent situation he told her about wasn't just an excuse to praise her teaching methods. "Thanks Arch but -"

He put his hands up. "I know, you do it for the students and the community and you don't need any praise. I've learned that already." he promised.

She looked at him skeptically and he continued.

"Just putting your name on the university website and magazine, has more than doubled the number of applicants for the program, students from all around the world want to learn from you and the amount of donations to keep the program funded has exceeded our goals by far. We actually have so much that we've been able to delegate scholarships and enough left over to start renovating the theater. It's more than we ever could have hoped for." he told her.

"But?" she urged. "If this isn't a praise lecture then a but is definitely on its way."

He grinned sheepishly, "But one of the charitable donors has asked, well demanded really, that you perform at his theater for at least a week at their local theater. With the amount that they've donated, we aren't really in a position to say no and this opportunity would be monumental for the students."

"I see." Zatanna said calmly.

Archie rushed to continue. "I know your contract only asks that you perform here a few times annually but please know that all expenses for you and the students you select to attend with you would be covered by the university and of course you would be given a raise as this exceeds your current contractual obligations."

"Which theater?" she asked.

"The Apollo in Manhattan. They'd like you to fill a vacancy they have for the next week." Archie told her.

She sighed. "I can't Arch, I'm sorry."

"Zatanna, please think about it." he started.

"I already have and I'm sorry, really I am, but my life is too hectic right now. I can't just pick up and go at their beck and call." She said. "Knowing the Apollo, they want nightly shows for a week plus matinees, and to mentor students and fit them into the show, that's a twenty-five-hour job and I don't have that time."

"We can tell them we can't do daily matinees they'd understand."

"I can't do any of it Arch, I'm sorry." She picked up her bag and Archie startled her by jumping up from his seat.

"Look! I know you aren't looking to get back into the business Zatanna, I do. I mean why else teach theatrical art here, when you could still be performing all over the world, obviously the demands haven't slowed. Maybe you want a normal life, so you and your dad retire quietly, I get it but maybe you weren't called to be normal maybe-"

"I have kids Archie." she said pulling him up short. She let him take in the news with relative shock.

He plopped back into his seat. "Oh." he said. He looked her over with new found perspective. "Oh." he said again.

"Twins, to be specific, they're finishing up their last year of preschool and they're going to kindergarten this fall."

His eyes were wide with comprehension and shock as he continued to stare at her dumbfounded. "So, when you take off after your classes because you're busy…" he mumbled.

Zatanna nodded. "Yep." she confirmed. "Off being a mom."

"Wow." he said. "I would've never guessed, you don't look like…" he trailed off and looked away from her as casually as he could. "And you kept your maiden name so.."

"Well," she said with a smile in her voice, "I'm not married so keeping my maiden name seemed like the smart choice." she joked. "And thank you….I think" she said as she smiled at his unfinished compliment.

He flushed and looked back at her, "I'm sorry, I'm being really stupid right now. I'm just shocked is all."

"That's fair." Zatanna allowed. "No one other than family and friends know."

He nodded. "Is that why you retired?" he asked carefully.

Zatanna pursed her lips, "No, not entirely, I had a lot going on at the time, so I was already turning down more and more offers but once the Wyette and John were conceived, my priorities shifted."

"Of course," he agreed. "Of course."

She smiled at him meekly.

"Twin boys, huh?" he mused.

"Wyette's actually a girl." Zatanna smiled.

Archie shook his head in what could only be self-loathing, he looked as though he could melt into a puddle of shame.

"It's a common mistake." Zatanna told him kindly.

"Sure it is." he mumbled. "Is their father in the picture?"

"Yeah," Zatanna said with too much gusto. "He is and he's great."

"But you aren't together? Sorry, I don't mean to pry." he said after a beat.

"No, it's fine." Zatanna assured him. "No, we are not together. We grew up together and then…. grew apart over time. It happens."

"So, he's blind, deaf, and dumb?" Archie joked. "Because…" he waved at her mutely as if it needed no further explanation.

Zatanna laughed.

"Well, if he's so great, can Wyette and John stay with him for a week?" he asked tenderly.

Zatanna bit her lower lip.

"I mean, I get it, if I knew you had kids earlier I would have mentioned it to them."

Zatanna's eyes flashed up to his. "I'd actually appreciate if you didn't." she said stiffly. "I'd really like them to have as normal a life as possible." she explained.

He nodded in understanding. "Well in that case, I don't know what to tell the board."

Zatanna sighed. "Tell them, I'll do Thursday night into the long weekend of April, not a day sooner, a matinee on every day and that my primary objective is showcasing the students. I'll close out the show every night, but it won't be  _my_  show."

Archie scribbled all of this down and looked up at her hesitantly. "And if they don't agree?" he countered.

She smiled at him, "They'll agree." she said getting up to leave.

"Okay." he breathed.

Zatanna reached the door and turned back to him. "And Archie about my kids…" she said trailing off.

"Mums the word mama." he promised.

Zatanna cocked a brow at him and he immediately started backtracking.

"I'm so sorry, I don't know what just came over me." he apologized.

"Have a great day Arch." she said as she closed the door behind her.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you who noticed that chapters 13 &14 were duplicates and alerted me to that, thank you so so so much. This is the real chapter 14 and I hope you enjoy it.

Zatanna sighed, her meeting with Archie had gone on longer than she'd wanted it to and worse she had to confide in him about Wyette and John. Although she was all too certain Archie was anything but a threat, she wanted to keep the lid on the secret for as long as she could. Eventually, the world would know about the twins, this was a given. After all between her civilian life, the former renowned magician and Dick being the first adopted son of Bruce Wayne and the last of the flying Grayson's, even people with very minimal interest would tune in to find out more.

How'd Zatanna and Dick Grayson end up in the same circle? How long was their affair? Was the pregnancy why she retired? Are their kids going into show business as magicians or acrobats? Were they entitled to the Wayne fortune and the Zatara fortune? How did they manage to keep it a secret for so long? What do they look like?

Questions.

Questions she didn't want people asking and questions she damn sure didn't want to answer. She hated the idea of strangers trying to take pictures of them or intruding on their privacy and ruining what little innocence was left of their childhood. She wanted them to have normal lives; whatever that meant.

Normal, the word racked itself round her brain and tortured her. What did she know about being normal? The most normal person she knew growing up was Dick and he was a secret super hero and the son of a billionaire; certainly, that didn't qualify him as normal. Between the two of them how could she hope that their kids could have a normal life? They were practitioners of magic and could easily do a gymnastics routine that should be considered advanced for their years. Though they hadn't the slightest clue, they had enough money in the bank to buy several small islands and then some. Moreover, they still didn't know who their father was and why he hadn't been in their lives…..normal. As if.

She stood up with her tea in hand and looked at her phone, Dick had texted and offered to bring the twins to Shadowcrest in about an hour or so. She eyed the text suspiciously then replied her consent.

They had some talking to do.

* * *

"What time is Zatanna coming to pick up the twins?" Barbara asked Dick as he sat at the computer in the Batcave. She stood behind him closely and brought her lips to the inside of his shoulder blade.

"I'm dropping them off actually." Dick told her.

"Oh?" Barbara mused.

Dick turned around to face her, "Yeah, I am."

"Why? Did she ask you to?" Barbara asked.

"No," Dick answered her honestly, "She didn't, I offered."

Barbara looked at him skeptically, "Why?"

"I need to talk to her." Dick said taking her hand in his. "And I can't do that here."

"Because of me." Barbara inferred.

He shook his head, "Of course not."

Barbara looked at him dubiously. "Well she's certainly not a fan of mine."

"So I guess that makes the two of you even," Dick countered. "Look Babs, I don't know what happened between you two a few months back, but she's still the mother of my kids."

"Then I guess that makes us even." She pointed out.

"I'm not following you." Dick told her point blank.

"You don't know what happened between the two of us and I don't know what happened between the two of you a few months ago, or even a few years ago so I guess we are even." She said pulling her hand away from his.

Dick looked at her incredulously before turning back towards the computer.

"Come on, Dick. Talk to me." She implored him.

"About what Barbara, nothing's happened." He muttered.

"Okay maybe nothing happened two and a half months ago but something happened five years ago. Why else would she have left, knowing she was pregnant?"

"You'd have to ask her that yourself."

"I did." Barbara said stubbornly.

Dick turned around to face her again, "You what?" he spat.

"You wanted to know what happened the last time she came here; and I am telling you. I confronted her about what she did to you."

"Why?" Dick groaned. "Why would you do that?"

"Because what she did was fucked up and I wanted to know why she did it."

"She had her reasons Babs."

"What reasons could justify this Dick? How could she do that to you?" she snapped. "And why aren't you fighting her, why am I the only person who seems interested in her disappearing act?"

"Because it happened, it's the past and now," he said raking his hand through hair, "now I have Wyette and John. Now I know they exist and I know Zatanna is alive, and so now it's over. That whole thing is over and so is this conversation."

Barbara scoffed, "Of course it is."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Dick asked.

"Nothing." Barbara mumbled as she started to take her leave. As she reached the stairs she turned back to look at him, "Just remember I'm on your side Dick."

"I know." Dick replied.

"Yeah, well act like it." she said before leaving.

* * *

"Hey guys, can I talk to you for a minute?"

Wyette and John looked up from their play things and gave Barbara their undivided attention.

Tim and Damian looked at Barbara skeptically.

"Can I talk to the twins alone please?" she asked mulishly.

Damian cocked a brow and after a beat Tim stood up to leave. "We'll be just outside if you need anything."

Damian who had been entertaining John (teaching him martial arts moves in spite of Dick and Zatanna's blatant disapproval) seemed more reluctant to leave. Although he would be the last person to admit it, he had grown rather fond of the twins, John in particular; he saw him as his own personal protégé and although he constantly scolded John on his 'overtly nice' demeanor had come to see him as a younger brother of sorts.

John was everything Damian thought a little boy ought to be, kind, curious, smart, and without bias. The boy had clung to Damian since the moment he arrived at the Manor and initially it vexed him, but instead of shooing him away, he thought he'd 'befriend' him the only way he knew how; fighting/teaching him to survive. In that time he'd really come to appreciate him and even the way Zatanna and Dick had chosen to raise them.

The last thing he wanted now, was for anyone (even Barbara) to get in the way of what was now their norm and their budding relationship/apprenticeship.

"It'll just be a minute." Barbara told him.

Damian got up and sulked out of the room.

* * *

Barbara sat down at the play table and motioned them to do the same. Wyette and John sat down excitedly.

"I need your help guys." Barbara told them.

Wonder and amusement sat on their faces.

"Okay." Wyette agreed.

John looked at his sister nervously and then back at Barbara.

"What do you know about your dad?" she asked them softly.


	15. Chapter 15

Dick grabbed his jacket alongside the twins' in the closet and briskly jogged up the stairs.

As he turned the bend he noticed Damian sitting outside of the playroom in a crossed legged position; meditating.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Meditating." Damian answered in a brusque tone through stiff lips.

"I can see that," Dick replied, "I meant why aren't you inside with John and Wyette, I asked you and Tim to watch them while I did some work for Bruce."

"I know." Damian answered.

"Then why-"

"Barbara wanted to spend time alone with them." Damian said getting to his feet.

"Why?" Dick asked.

"Figure that out yourself. If I'm off babysitting duty then I'm leaving, I've got better things to do." He muttered as he stalked off.

Barbara could hear Dick's voice from behind the door and bit her lip.

* * *

Dick walked into the room and looked at the three of them who stared back him.

"What's going on in here?" he asked lightly.

"Nothing." Barbara informed him.

"Oh really?" Dick asked.

"Yep, really. We were just talking. Weren't we guys?" Barbara quipped.

John nodded and Wyette smiled mischievously.

"Talking about what?" Dick asked as he crossed the room and sat down in the little pink chair at the table.

"It's a secret." Barbara said quickly. "Nothing to concern yourself about."

Wyette's smile told him she was going to hold on to the secret for at least 3 more minutes, while John's pout and nervous agitation told him otherwise.

"John…" Dick started.

Barbara rolled her eyes and sagged into her seat in defeat.

John's lower lip jutted out into a full pout and a stern look of disapproval, his big blue eyes swimming in momentary sadness. He looked at Barbara and the at Wyette before shifting in his seat and picking at invisible spots in his pants as he turned to face Dick.

"We're not supposed to talk about it, mommy said we can't but Wyette talked anyway." He mumbled.

"What did your mom say you can't talk about big guy?" Dick urged.

John's eyes fell away from Dick's before he answered glumly. "We can't talk about out our dad."

Dick struggled to keep his composure. He gave Barbara a withering glare and took a deep breath through his nose before facing the twins and allowing his curiosity to get the best of him.

"Why can't you talk about it?" Dick asked softly.

"Because it's a secret." Wyette told him completely unabashed by the conversation.

"Why don't you tell him, what you told me?" Barbara offered. "Just that little part."

Wyette looked to be turning it over in her mind while John looked at his sister wearily.

"What part?" Dick asked.

Wyette laughed, "I didn't say anything."

"She told Barbara about the names." John clarified.

"Huh?" Dick said.

She smiled, her small white teeth lighting up her face. "Wyette's my name, but Sindella is my gamma's and Grayson is my daddy's name. We all have the same last name, just the three of us because we're a family. Mommy has a different name but she's still in our family and she said, daddy's a superhero."

Dick reeled at how casually she said the words. He looked at Barbara who nodded at him in encouragement and though he was still pissed at her for having done this without his consent and against Zatanna's wishes, he couldn't help but want to know more.

_**How much did they know about him? How much could he tell them without scaring them or ticking off Zatanna? Were they ready for this?** _

"Where is your daddy?" Dick asked carefully

Wyette and John shrugged, John leaned his face into his small palm, his elbow resting on the table. Dick resisted the urge to laugh, the little four year old looked as thoug he was exhausted from the line of questioning.

Wyette on the other hand handed him a tea cup.

"He's very far away." she said, her tone very serious.

"Do you know anything else about your daddy?" Dick pressed.

Wyette nodded mutely, focusing on her task of pouring imaginary tea.

"Well what do you know?" Dick pressed on when the four-year-old didn't continue.

Wyette made an exasperated sigh, she had reached her limit. She wasn't going to say anymore.

"It's a secret." John insisted in a huff before dramatically bringing both hands to his face and shaking his head.

For the first time since they'd started the conversation, Wyette seemed repentant and thoughtful, not because of the conversation but because of her brother's reaction. She put her tea cup down and patted John's head smoothly in an attempt to soothe him.

Dick couldn't help but smile, in the short time he'd come to know Wyette he knew she wasn't one to withhold much. John on the other hand was a stickler for the rules, if he ever faltered it was only because he did it with Wyette; not because he wanted to but because his connection to her was palpable.

He protected Wyette by supporting her, after all there was strength in numbers, but he was more cautious and observant by far. If John had it his way, Dick was sure they wouldn't be talking at all but even in his youth John seemed to understand his sister's outgoing personality was a force that couldn't be stopped simply tamed.

They were like opposite pieces working in conjunction to operate as a whole.

Her evasiveness, even in her young age, showed a level of maturity and discipline on her part; he was impressed. She also looked like a miniature version of the young and frustrated Zatanna in this moment, whenever Zatanna had been unable to quickly master a spell, a rosy flush would steal across her face and nose while her blue eyes shone furiously. It seemed that Wyette was no different.

John on the other hand was far more cautious than his sister, his maturity leaped hers and it didn't surprise him in the least. He followed orders and stuck to the rules, no questions asked.

"Fine," Dick said putting down his teacup, "I won't tell you guys my secret either."

John's eyes burned as they raced up Dick's face.

"That's right, I have a secret too and I am not gonna tell you." Dick said smugly.

Wyette smiled, shaking her head all the while. "You don't have a secret."

Dick shrugged nonchalantly, "Maybe I do, maybe I don't, but I won't tell you either way."

"That's not fair." John frowned.

"Yes it is, I won't tell you and you won't tell me. That's fair." Dick said.

Wyette's face furrowed into one of frustration again before smoothing out. "Okay, I have an idea!" she beamed.

"Hmmm?" Dick probed.

Wyette turned to John and whispered in his ear, before she could pull away he grabbed her arm and whispered something back while watching Dick and Barbara carefully. They spoke in loud whispers for roughly a minute.

Dick smiled, these had to be the craftiest four year old's on the planet; they had to be his.

"I'll tell you a little of my secret and then you can tell me a little of your secret." Wyette offered.

"But only a little." John clarified.

"Okay." Dick agreed easily.

"You first." John spoke.

Dick laughed. "Okay but you can't tell anybody, do you promise?"

"Okay." They agreed eagerly.

Dick leaned in and watched as their bright blue eyes glowed with anticipation.

"I know who Batman is." He told them.

"We already know that secret." John replied.

Dick pulled away genuinely taken aback, "What do you mean you know that secret?"

"Yeah, we do." Wyette said uninterestedly while picking up her teapot and filling the cup for Barbara and her stuffed giraffe.

"Who is the Batman then?" Dick asked incredulously.

Wyette looked at his face and laughed her bubbly little laugh. "It's a secret."

John brought his palm to his face and Dick laughed.

"Some secret." Dick muttered. "Well that's the only secret I have."

Wyette sipped her invisible tea and John looked pensive.

"I want a better secret." Wyette said pointedly.

Dick put his hands up in surrender, "Okay, whatever you want, but this time you guys first."

Wyette looked to John and between them came to a silent agreement.

Wyette leaned into the table and looked at the adults bashfully before a blush stole across her face, "Mommy says that my daddy-"

"He's my daddy too." John said frustratedly.

Wyette huffed, "Okay, mommy says that our daddy is the blue in John's eyes and smile in my heart," she said, "but I don't think she knows my daddy because I looked in John's eyes and I didn't see him."

Dick smiled softly, leaned back into the small chair, taken aback. "Trust me, he's in there." He breathed.

"Our turn." John said.

Dick waved his hand for him to proceed.

"Do you know where our dad is?" he asked.

Dick was brought up short, the question and its answer holding so much between them. Barbara's eyes studied Dick's face as she too, awaited his response. Dick opened his mouth to answer…


	16. Chapter 16

"Times up." Zatanna snapped from the doorway, a surge of wind gusting out from around her as she suddenly appeared in the Wayne manor, her blue eyes blazing.

"Zatanna." Dick replied, taken aback by her sudden appearance.

"Mommy." Wyette beamed completely unabashed, while John looked away timidly.

Zatanna walked over to the small table and took their hands, conjuring their jackets into her free hand.

"Common guys, we're going." Zatanna said, her underlying rage just barely concealed in her tone. A tone that Dick knew all too well.

Barbara stood up suddenly, grabbing the toy rabbit Wyette carried around with her everywhere.

"I'll help." she muttered.

Zatanna's head snapped up and as their eyes met a chill ran down Barbara's spine and froze her to spot. She felt a cold sweat collect on her back and tried to move, speak, anything but found that she couldn't.

Zatanna blinked deliberately and took a deep breath, at the same time Barbara let go of a breath she hadn't been aware she was holding.

"No. I've got it. Thanks." Zatanna told her, the warning in her voice unmistakable.

"Zatanna," Dick said again with urgency, "Please."

"Mommy, I have to get my bookbag." John said as he pulled his hand away and went to grab it from the closet.

Zatanna released Wyette's hand. "Go help your brother baby."

Wyette followed behind him.

"Please what?" Zatanna hissed at him.

"Let's talk about this." he said his voice barely above that of a whisper.

"Why would you -" she started.

"They got the better of me." he admitted. "It won't happen again."

"They aren't even five, Dick. How do you expect me to believe that?" she asked him frankly.

"Believe it or not, it's what happened. We can't hide this forever, I can't hide it from them forever-"

"You-" Zatanna started, cutting him off.

"It was me." Barbara said. "I baited them."

Zatanna spun to face her, she looked her over and shook her head. "Of course it was."

Suddenly Zatanna's face brightened up as the kids ran toward her, she clasped her hands together and smiled.

"Now what do you guys say to Dick for taking such good care of you?" she prompted.

"Thank you." the twins beamed in unison.

"Yep, can't thank you enough." she said sarcastically. "Okay guys, let's go."

She took their hands in hers and before he could say another word they were gone.

He barely noticed Barbara who had put a comforting hand on the side of his face, mumbling a weak apology. He suddenly yanked his jacket off the back of the chair and bolted out of the manage and into the garage where his motorcycle lay in wait.

he hopped on and whipped away, the protesting squeaks the only evidence he left behind as he found himself on the way to Shadowcrest.


	17. Chapter 17

He came to an abrupt stop before the manor and marched up the stairs.

She couldn't just leave him uninformed, wondering where he stood with his kids.

He flexed and then clenched his jaw in frustration.

Did she simply expect him to do nothing? What did this little mishap even mean for him? For them?

He raised his hand to pound on the door and nearly fell over as the door opened without his having done anything. He stumbled into the house and looked up at the scene before him, the twins being hoisted up into the air and giggling rampantly at the hands of a young man he knew all too well.

"Uncle Zach!" Wyette and John screamed simultaneously as Zatanna leaned against the stair railings watching Dick.

"Well if it isn't my two favorite magicians." Zach replied, scooping them up in either arm and walking back towards Zatanna.

From the looks of it, Zach had just showed up and Zatanna had been expecting either the both of them or just him. As Zachary Zatara put Wyette down, she ran over and clutched Dick's hand pulling him over to where Zach stood.

"Look Dick, it's Uncle Zach! Uncle Zach, look!" she demanded.

Dick couldn't help but be taken aback, the last time he'd seen Zach, he was still an unruly, undisciplined teenager, who needed Zatanna to bail him out of trouble at least once a week. He'd been lanky and a bit thin, but the man before him now had cropped black hair that stood in nearly every direction, a strong jaw line and a medial build.

He'd grown up….and apparently the twins had grown up around him too; Dick noted.

"Well, if it isn't the man with the plan. How ya been, Grayson?" Zach asked as he placed John over his shoulder and stuck out a hand to him.

"Zachary Zatara." Dick replied, taking his hand with a firm grip. "Last time I spoke to you, you and Zatanna weren't on speaking terms and you had no clue where she was. Now, you're here with Zatanna, Wyette, and John no less."

Zach smiled sheepishly, "Yeah." He winced a little at Dick's over exerted force, "It's been a while." He replied.

Dick applied more pressure to his grip, earning a satisfying yelp from the magician. "And yet not long enough Zach, somehow that's always the case with you."

John smiled widely at Dick, probably the largest smile he'd ever seen from the boy, "You know uncle Zach, too?!"

Dick let go of Zach's hand, "Something like that." He muttered.

"Uncle Zach is the best, he can do all sorts of magic, wanna see?" Wyette offered brightly.

"Maybe next time." Dick promised.

Wyette prepared to pout when Zatanna intervened, "Dick and I have to talk, so why don't you guys go play with uncle Zach for now, you can show him all your new gymnastics tricks."

"Okay." They agreed. "Bye Dick!"

Zatanna waited until they were no longer in sight before turning her attention to Dick. Before she could even turn around and address him, he beat her to the punch.

"Well?" he said.

"Well what?" she said in a hard voice.

"What's my punishment this time? You blow up and storm out and think that's it. I know you better than that."

Zatanna's eyes sparkled with something he couldn't identify, her face straight and unamused. "Oh, do you?" she asked dryly.

"God, you are incredible." He seethed. "You're incredible! You know that? It's like one step forward with you and ten steps back. I don't know where I stand with you and you know what, I think that's exactly what you want. What it's all about. I don't know when you got so-"

Suddenly his lips felt sewn together by an invisible force.

"Are you done?" Zatanna asked. "Because I haven't got all day, if I don't check on Zach and the kids in the next five minutes they might be in another dimension. Between the three of them John is the adult and he can only withstand so much."

Dick narrowed his eyes and she took that as a sign to continue.

"I get it, you want to be a dad, you want them to know they have a father but we had a deal Dick, a deal you were a second away from breaking, so my question is; is this for them or for you? The glory of being a father comes with the crap too and responsibilities, not just day trips, lunches, and acro sessions. You want to be a dad, act like one, prove you can deal with them for more than a couple of hours."

Dick's lips twitched in response.

"I have a …..work thing I have to go to. There's no getting out of it, I'll be out of town for a few days and the twins would only distract me." she huffed, her cheeks flushed and eyelashes downcast on her face. "And I want them to get to know you, as more than a friend." She choked out.

Dick watched as she fumbled with her hands before she came to a stop.

"So can you take them?" she asked in a hushed voice.

Dick wondered idly if his eyebrows were as high off his face as they felt. He'd come prepared for a war and instead got a seat at the table. He went to open his mouth and frowned when he realized he couldn't.

Zatanna snapped her fingers and released the spell.

"You've really got a way with words, you know that?" he barked before throwing his hands up in a sign of surrender before she could lock his lips again.

"Zach is in there unchaperoned with your biological children, is now the time to lecture me?" she snapped.

"Oh, so what? Now all of a sudden you trust me to be a father figure?" he jeered. "Ten minutes ago you were ready to ice me out. Now you expect me to believe-"

"I expect you-!" she started as she closed the distance between them and dropped her voice, "To realize you don't parent with Barbara, you parent with me. We made a deal; the two of us. Since when do you let Barbara sucker you into-"

"Don't blame Barbara for this-" he started in a low voice.

Zatanna threw her hands into her hair in exasperation.

"Oh my God, Dick, can we have one conversation that doesn't combust into an argument?"

Dick rolled his eyes and she glared at him before they both fell silent before she let go of a heavy breath.

"I-I want to trust you Dick because I need to know, that you will parent them the way we discuss it. I need to know that you have my back, because we're a team whether they know it now or not. Eventually they will and I don't want us on separate agendas. I don't care who baits who, I need to know you won't bite."

"I don't need a reason to take them," he told her. "I want them. I want them any time I can have them. You know that. Whatever chance you give me, to get us where we need to be, I'll take it. I just wish I knew what you're so damn scared of. You know you have nothing to worry about."

Zatanna bit her lip to keep from replying, she had many reasons to worry and one was a fiery redhead who didn't know how to quit.

"She was just trying to help." Dick told her earnestly and in a soft-spoken voice.

"Help who?" she whispered in reply.

"It's-"

"Complicated." Zatanna finished, shaking her head in a silent rebuke. "It's always complicated."

As they both thought back to their previous history, its implications, and rocky sequel; Dick for the first time since seeing her after a long five years felt a twinge of guilt.

A loud crash from the back room caught their attention and Zatanna sighed.

_Of course_. They both thought as they started walking towards the sound of offense.


	18. Chapter 18

"How can you defend her Alfred?!" Barbara shouted as she paced the kitchen. "She's done nothing but put this entire family in a tailspin since before she even got back and you sit there and act like nothing ever happened? What's wrong with you all? You, Dick, Bruce…she's not a little girl anymore, she's not even an orphan really, she's a grown woman with kids!"

Alfred cocked a brow at her in blatant disbelief.

"That's not what I meant." She said before he could speak.

Alfred opened his mouth to speak. "I-"

"What happened to her was tragic, her mother and then…..her father but technically he is still alive is all I mean. Not that there has to be a technical classification for orphans, I am just saying we shouldn't have to feel sorry for her."

"Is that what you think this is all about?" Alfred asked her. "You think that we aren't stepping in because we feel sorry for her?"

Barbara gave him a curt nod. "You all still see her as this soft child, but she's not."

"And she never has been." Alfred told her frankly. "Zatanna Zatara did not come to Wayne Manor to be coddled, no on the contrary, she came in as a young lady who had been through a terrible ordeal and yet never asked for more than a spot of tea and a shoulder to cry on. She was a young adult through and though, always handling her responsibilities and helping out when she could, sand in spite of all she had been through made an effort to be part of the family. She went from a loving family to a dysfunctional family and when Jason-" Alfred's breath momentarily caught as he remembered the young boy.

He cleared his throat and continued with effort. "Even when it seemed like all hope was lost for this family and she was away at the time, she really helped to remind some of us that life was not in vain. She never asked for a thing, she moved out the minute she graduated from boarding school, she really tried to get her life together. So no we never pitied her, I for one envied her strength. She was a ray of sunlight fighting more than her fair share of clouds and so if she wanted more for her kids, then who am I to judge? Especially when all I have ever wanted was more for this family."

Barbara's lip slipped into a pout.

"I…I didn't know that." She confessed quietly.

"How could you?" Alfred asked haughtily. "You were too busy pitying her for being an orphan and competing with her for Maser Dick's attention. Attention, by the way, that she never sought to take from you. I believe she even tried being a friend to you."

"She….I…" Barbara sighed, "Yeah, yeah she did."

Alfred looked at her evenly, knowing she would continue.

"She was really good for Dick when he needed her and she was a friend, at least I thought, but then she just vanished. She left and she hurt him Alfred, she hurt my best friend and my…she hurt more than just Dick. She abandoned the team, she left all of us including you. She took away what was rightfully his and then waltzes back in here like she has the moral high ground to stand on. It isn't fair. We didn't deserve that. Dick didn't deserve that, you don't deserve that." She said shakily.

Alfred patted the stool beside him in an invitation to her and she took it gratefully.

"I don't think she did it  _ **to**_  us, if she'd anything like the girl I remember, she did it  _ **for**_  them and maybe even  _ **for**_  us." He told her honestly.

Barbara shook her head. "I don't know if I can believe that. I just don't."

Alfred didn't reply but allowed her to rest her head on his shoulder.

"I just want to look out for him, Alfie. I love that idiot."


	19. Chapter 19

Zatanna set her broom stick on the wall as she fished for the vibrating phone in her back pocket. She read the contact ID and went to answer before hesitating.

_Mikey_ , she thought sorely.

Zach was the only person who knew Zatanna's whereabouts in the five years she had gone missing. After all, he was the only family she had left, the only person who she could not only trust but could understand the situation she was in at the time.

Having been dragged back by Bruce, she realized now that it had been a mistake on her part. A mistake she still couldn't find it in her to regret, after all she had given her kids the safest possible upbringing she could. She'd never regret that, but she did regret abandoning the relationships with the people who she cared about most and Mikey was definitely one of those relationships.

She'd been a confidant since the very start of her performing days and though she'd given Mikey more of an explanation than any else, she knew it hadn't been enough. Mikey searched high and low for her friend before eventually settling and moving onto another theater; the Apollo by Zatanna's guess.

The news that Zatanna Zatara was back was already hitting the inner circle of theaters everywhere and Mikey would certainly be among the people that knew. As much as she had missed her friend though, she didn't know what to say. Especially not now.

* * *

_"You sure are a glutton for punishment." Zatanna said acknowledging his presence in the building although she hadn't turned around._

_A stage hand narrowly avoided colliding with him as she rushed towards the backstage with props in her hand._

_Dick smirked, "Yeah I guess it's something like that." He agreed._

_"Well," she said turning around with one hand on her hip and the other gesturing towards the busy stage, "I've got a show to run."_

_"I know." he said coyly, "I've got a lead to follow."_

_"You're on the job?" she asked incredulously. "In Prague?" she deadpanned._

_"Villainy never sleeps." He reminded her._

_She didn't reply for a moment before she chuckled reluctantly._

_"One of these days Dick Grayson, you're going to run out of excuses for seeing me."_

_Dick laughed grandly. "Let's hope that day never comes."_

_Her wavy hair bounced on her shoulders as she brought her hand to her hip in the midst of her laughter._

_"Why can't you just ask me out normally?" she asked him, her eyes inquisitive. "It would be a hell of a lot easier than sporadically following me across the globe."_

_He shrugged. "Maybe I like the chase."_

_"Or maybe you're afraid to catch the prey." She accused him._

_"Do you think of yourself as prey?" He asked in an amused tone._

_"Are you ever going to just ask me out? You know, be straightforward." She asked._

_He smiled, "I could but I think that might oversimplify things."_

_She rolled her eyes, "Because simplicity would be such a bad thing for people in our line of work." She joked._

_"No, it wouldn't," he confessed, "but you deserve an extraordinary kind of love and I want to give it to you, even but between our line of work, our careers, and our history I haven't quite figured it out yet. So-"_

_Zatanna cut him off by abruptly pressing her lips to his._

_God, he loved kissing her. She never kissed him halfheartedly._

_As she pressed her full soft lips to his, she softly nipped at his lips for entrance and once granted it felt like every nerve stood at attention in his body, while his hands gripped her tighter and tighter._

_She pulled away leaving him bereft and still puckered. She laughed and wiped her lipstick away off his lips with her thumb._

_"You make complicated sound so good." She sighed breathlessly._

_"Its my super power." He laughed._

_She shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Fine, Dick, tonight after the final bow and not a minute later. This better not be a mission date."_

_Dick smiled brightly, "It won't be."_

_She shoved him away playfully, "Okay leave, I have a show to run."_

_"Okay, okay." He laughed, before he turned away he grabbed her by the waist and kissed her again._

_He pulled away. "I love kissing you." He told her._

_Zatanna rolled her eyes again but smiled. "Don't you have a villain to stalk or stop or something?" she reminded him._

_"Yep." He said as he smiled brightly. "I'll see you later Zee." He called as he left the theater._

_Mikey her stage hand walked up behind her, clucking her tongue._

_"For the number of times I have seen you two get back together, he must be really good in bed." She told her._

_Zatanna flushed. "I didn't know you were keeping tabs." She admitted._

_Mikey scoffed and pushed part of her blonde hair behind her ear._

_"Yeah right, like I wouldn't notice the Richard Grayson, coming and going every other year. You two ever thought of, I don't know, staying together? Being a constant thing?"_

_Zatanna laughed. "It's crossed my mind."_

_"Has it crossed his?" Mikey replied._

_Zatanna pursed her lips. "It's-"_

_"Complicated." Mikey finished. "It always is with him and the blonde guy too. I know you're the boss but you're way too incredible for anyone to find being in a relationship with you; complicated. Hottie or not, it's not worth your time and effort."_

_Zatanna's face; a stark contrast from what it had been just moments ago, scrunched up before smoothing out into a weak smile._

_"Thank you Mikey, I know you're looking out for me, I do but really it's okay. I'm okay." She told her stage hand and close friend, who cocked a disbelieving brow at her._

_"Dick and I, we're just hanging out. Neither of us are ready for the responsibility of a relationship right now, we're bothw ay too busy, so disfunction works for us right now. Trust me. If and when I get ready to settle down I'll make sure it's anything but complicated." She promised._

_Mikey sighed._

_"You hot people make everything so complicated." Mikey said jokingly, alleviating the tension between them._

_"You'd know." Zatanna said as she bumped her hip to hers._

_Mikey laughed, "I just don't want you getting hurt. You may act all tough, but you're too sweet for all of this Zee, really."_

_"Mikey please." Zatanna said in an exasperated tone. "Drop it. It's no big deal, it's just Dick."_

_"Yes, it's Dick who is always perfect until he's not, until something more important than you comes along and you get put on the back burner. We aren't kids anymore, actions speak louder than words, remember that." Mikey insisted._

_"Okay." Zatanna relented. "I will."_

_"Good, because if he takes off again, I think I'm gonna have to track him down and make him disappear." Mikey threatened jokingly._

_Zatanna laughed, the idea of Mikey threatening anyone was hilarious, the idea of her threatening Dick Grayson? Hysterical. She threw her arms around her neck, "Oh Mikey, what would I do without you?"_

_"Nothing." Mikey said as they started walking towards the dressing rooms._

* * *

Zatanna sighed as she watched the screen go dark and light up with following text. She put her phone back into her pocket and finished sweeping the shattered glass Zach had managed to knock over while playing with the kids.

Dick and Zach were playing with the twins now and probably catching up as best they could. She knew they had never been too fond of one another.

She stood against the wall and let her head fall back gently. She quickly brought a hand to her face to catch her falling tears. The last thing she needed Dick, Zach, or even the twins to see was evidence of her tears. Things were complicated enough.


	20. Note From the Author

As usual I cannot thank you all enough for your continued support for something that truly brings myself and many others such joy. Writing isn't always easy, being consistent isn't easy, but knowing that you all are so committed to this story in particular makes me feel like validated in doing what I love. That's why I ask you all to support me in another avenue of expression, my podcast. I won't pretend that it has anything to do with the world of fanfiction (though it is definitely a topic that will be discussed on an upcoming episode) but it has everything to do with really exploring the individual and understanding human connection; something that I think all anime, manga, cartoons, comics, and yes even fanfiction focuses on.

We seek to understand the characters we love, we yearn for this sense of relatability, we yearn for the beauty of connection between characters, and this podcast is the physical embodiment of that. I won't pretend I'm a pro because I'm not I'm just getting started but I ask for your support anyway. The link is below. Subscribe, Listen, Comment & Share with people you think would be interest. I'm eager to hear from you all.

Thank you in advance. Your next chapter is coming shortly.

A Humbled Author

Esther Alexis

Podcast Name: Esther Alexis Body of an Extravert

Ep. 1. Choosing Happiness

It will be live on Google Play and Spotify by the end of the weekend we are hoping

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPDIvH-6Je0


	21. Chapter 21

"Don't forget its homework, mystic arts, and then martial arts; right after-"

"Right after school and an early dinner, which should have a balance of good fats, proteins, and light carbs. No juice, no dairy, just water. Not cold, room temp." Dick repeated towards her.

Zatanna had spent the last few weeks drilling the twins' life schedule into his brain. She had essentially every second of every moment of their lives planned and though part of him had expected this, he still couldn't seem to believe that the quiet wild child that he had been so infatuated with all those years ago had turned into _that mom_.

Although he could understand how life could have led her here, he couldn't help but pity Wyette and John, there was no scheduled 'fun time', no scheduled shenanigans that all kids should have and he wondered if they truly even knew what fun was. Even Bruce left him to his own devices at times!

He knew better than to comment on it though, because when Zatanna had first given him the schedule, he thought to ask when they had time to have fun and it became clear they had very different opinions on what fun was.

* * *

_**"This is fun. It's educational and scheduled fun. " she told him, though the way her brows were pulled insinuated that she was somewhat offended.** _

_**"I mean the kind of fun that isn't educational." He offered.** _

_**"Well that's the kind of fun I assume they have when they are here, they garden, John and Damian do whatever it is they do and Wyette dresses up with Alfred until she can no longer stand. If it wasn't for the schedule they'd-"** _

_**"Got it." Dick promised cutting her off. "We live and breathe by the schedule."** _

_**"Just because it's organized doesn't mean it's any less fun Dick, let me remind you that in the world order of magic there are only two kinds; dark and light, order and chaos. If one is a practitioner of light magic, one must have order. Hence, the schedule." Zatanna said as she took out another scrap of paper to write on. Dick resisted the urge to face palm himself and took the written note with as much grace as he could muster.** _

_**"You know…..I knew this girl once, total bad ass homo magi and she lived life like the wind; free." He mused, startling her with his ever curious and observant gaze.** _

_**Zatanna let out a breath, "Did you now?" she asked sarcastically.** _

_**He nodded. "Her father tried to do something like this," he said lifting up the papers in his hand, "you know, schedule her life to the last minute, but he couldn't do it. It wasn't in her to be something she wasn't, thing was though, she wasn't order and she wasn't chaos either. She was….normal, she was human, it was all she ever wanted to be."** _

_**They locked eyes and shared a mutual sadness for the girl they mourned.** _

_**"She was perfect." He breathed as he searched her eyes for the girl he spoke of.** _

_**She looked wounded before him now and turned to finish writing her last note and handed it to him before clearing her throat.** _

_**"Yes, well, here is the schedule and the numbers to call if anything goes wrong. Zach is up there, he's really reliable but Alfred seems to know everything about everything so feel free to use him as a resource." She told him.** _

_**Dick arched a brow and smirked, "Am I supposed to pretend I don't know that you asked him to watch me watch them?"** _

_**Zatanna smiled then, " It would make me feel better, yes." she answered earnestly.** _

_**Dick smiled reluctantly at her shamelessness. "In that case, I'll be sure to use him as a resource."** _

_**"I think that's a great idea." she smiled up at him. "I should go, they're probably waiting if they aren't hassling Alfred for more sweets."** _

_**"They have gotten very good at that." Dick agreed as he led them towards the kitchen.** _

_**"Fortunately for them negotiation is a priceless life skill." She mused.** _

_**Dick nodded wordlessly. It had taken time and strenuous effort to get here, to a place where they could have mundane conversation without devolving into an argument of some sort and sometimes just sometimes, there would be just a glimmer of what they used to be. A part of the conversation where they laid their cards on the table and found that they were still the people they used to be; just before walls went up and closed off any opportunity of true reconciliation.** _

_**Dick soon realized though that this wasn't enough for him by far, it felt like talking to a shell of who she really was, and although he knew it would be better this way; that his relationship with Barbara would continue to progress naturally and that his relationship with his kids would come easier this way; he found that he hated it more than almost any alternative.** _

_**And he hated himself for it because it meant exactly what it shouldn't, but it seemed he had no control in the matter. They couldn't continue like this, pretending to be who they weren't before the very people who helped forge who they are. It didn't sit right with him, how could it? How many masks could one be expected to wear? How could they if they were ever going to grow into anything resembling a family. Whatever this tension was before them, it needed to be addressed and resolved, it was the only way to move towards the future he knew they both envisioned for the twins.** _

_**He gritted his teeth but the words left his mouth any way.** _

_**"What happened to her? That girl? The wind?" he asked suddenly. "I searched every corner of the world for her and even now...I….I"** _

_**Zatanna froze.** _

_**"Why do you always do that? Bring up the past?" Zatanna asked breathlessly. "It doesn't change what happened Dick. We don't live there anymore, John and Wyette aren't there so why does it matter?"** _

_**"Because it's the reason we are here Zee, and I want to know how we got here. I want to know why I cant have a real relationship with them, I want to know why I cant even have a civil relationship with you. I keep thinking about it over and over, I cant eat, sleep, or breathe without thinking about how we got here and I just don't get it. How do you get over what you don't understand?" He asked.** _

_**They stood there in silence, only their ragged breathing filling the cave before Zatanna turned to leave.** _

_**"You just do Dick." Zatanna muttered. "I did."** _

* * *

"Any questions?" she asked. She watched as the light came back into his eyes.

"Does tea count as a juice?" he asked jokingly.

It was a debate they had probably gone over a hundred times in the cave, while she lived there.

Zatanna smiled, "Iced Tea is essentially juice, I still stand by that statement firmly." she told him.

"Well then I guess that answers all my questions." he told her.

Zatanna rubbed her palms together nervously, "So that means you'll have full unsupervised custody of Wyette and John in less than 48 hours. How are the nerves?" she joked weakly.

Dick smirked, "No where near as fried as yours, I'm guessing. I know how big this is for you Zatanna, I'm not taking this responsibility lightly."

"I know." she assured him. "It's a big deal for you too, you're…." she paused to collect herself.

She wanted to, she wanted so badly to say the words aloud, that he was a father to her children, the children she raised alone, the children she brought into world singlehandedly, the children she had given everything up for; but it felt wrong, like her lips couldn't form the words like saying them would bound her to a contract she didn't want to buy into. "You're gonna be fine, they already love you so much." she finished lamely.

"Thank you Zatanna." he said reverently.

She hated it, hated how sincere he sounded, hated how anyone with eyes could so clearly see the willing devotion and eagerness he had at being a parent to her kids. She hated that it reminded her of who he used to be in her eyes, hated that it looked nothing like man she had seen behind the lids of her eyes for years and yet so much like the man she saw in him sometimes. She hated how confused she was and worse she hated it for Wyette and John, who slept innocently in their unaware of the war they sat in the center of.

Zatanna smiled weakly, "Of course. Good night Dick."

She saw him off as he got on his bike and waved at the door; ignoring the burning trail of tears that slid down her face.


End file.
